The War of the Nine
by SugarQueenLL
Summary: Continuation of Rise of Nine, my way. Five teams up with the rest of the Garde and they don't like her, and it proceeds from there. Not canon compliant anymore, because of Search for Sam. Which will be resolved by the end of Book Four. Rated T because Five doesn't care that some kids haven't had the talk. Again new picture.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first fanfic, it's a continuation of The Rise of Nine. Five is in here, it's after Sam and Adamus are rescued since I don't have enough imagination to write it otherwise. It won't be as fast paced as the actual book since I am a fan of character development and well characters.**

**-/-/-/**

**Five**

I barely have time to realize I'm in the air flying before the putrid scent of burning flesh overwhelms me. I look up and see the towering serpent crash back down into the water, while I fly to the far-off ground. I see hordes of black-uniformed soldiers waiting for me, and I spread myself layed-out as much as I can before I hit the ground. I bring my hands to me and bring my feet up and over, to standing. There are at least a hundred there, they knew I was coming. No trees, nearby, just tall grass and sand, and then the ocean. I snap my mind eye open briefly, I'm in North Carolina.

The soldiers, vat born, rear up their spears, and the special markings on the weapons tell me that they are in the special group. The uniform lines are ready to break formation as quickly as they needed, and they circle around me, keeping my back to the ocean. Clever.

I bend my knees and they point their spears down to them. A mistake. I gather the telekinesis around me and push off the ground, flip halfway forwards and block as hard as I can with my shoulders and use my telekinesis to bring myself up further. I let the first spear go by and increase it's velocity as much as I can and then hurtle it back down at an angle, it impales three Mogs in the chest. They drop, but they aren't dust yet. A second spear comes at me and I slow it and pluck it out of the air. I'm a sitting duck up here, I need to get get down to the grass. I break some spears into two with the one I have in my hands now, and send each end in a different direction. I force the remaining seventy five or so to the water with my telekinesis, beads of sweat breaking on my forehead.

I need to get down, and later I need to train this more.

The telekinesis falters and I'm ready, flipping to the ground and landing solidly. My ankles don't break, good. I keep them suppressed as much as I can but they start breaking through. My breathing quickens.

I sprint to the coastline. As predicted, they can't run as well as I do on sand. Something pierces my feet and I look down. Shells. I whip them up and throw them at the coming soldiers. I take more and more, and keep it coming. It's nowhere near enough to kill, but that isn't what I have in mind.

My hand reaches my upper back and pulls up over my head, and my vision and hearing goes. I slip along the shadows of the Mogs and the shells, all in a close enough form for me to not have to surface immediately. I open my mind eye again, and they are recovering from the shells, some of them bleeding from tiny scrapes. They start spreading out and I surface, right in the middle, quietly.

Five minutes, they are mostly dead, their necks caved in. My callused hands ache slightly and I survey the scene, much ash, and others unconscious, and paralyzed for life. One of them is clutching his spear, with unfeeling fingers. Another one, the group leader, is also paralyzed and he has a spear with different markings. I bring him up, and put one hand on the back of his neck and the other to the front, angled to his jaw. They come together and the leader is dust. The spear falls, and I pick it up from the sand. The tip is razor ship and glints red in the sunlight. I recognize it as a type of poison at the end, a rock poison from Mogadore that doesn't wear off.

I need to get to Canada, I need to get into that base. I stand up, but a flash comes from the corner of my eye. I feel something pierce into my side and I crumple to the ground, immediately propping myself up to get up. The Mog. He played dead. My breathing quickens as fast as it can, and my leg juts out only to be deflected quickly.

The blood soaks the sand, my blood, next to me, from me. I'm going to die. Out of the corner of my eye I see something black come and push him, and then the world goes black.

**-/-/-/**

So I'm not dead. I decide that I hate North Carolina, as I open my eyes. My eyelashes part with difficulty, and I hate myself for wearing mascara. Mila is standing above me, and I blink several times as she goes in and out of focus.

IDIOT! I scream to myself. I would be dead if it weren't for Mila, who I am assuming saved me.

I wiggle my toes and fingers. Back and neck not broken, good. I move them around more, but my right shoulder protests. Shit, that again. I sigh and look down, as I open and close my mouth. Well at least my jaw is intact.

_Mila? _

_Yes?_

Mind intact.

_Who saved my ass this time?_

_Me. You owe me one._

_Actually you owe me three. You just repaid one of your debts._

_And I was hoping you had a concussion…_

I smile and lift my hand up and let Mila's course tongue lick it, moving my hand slightly against her, black fur only slightly disheveled. Alright moving from that, Sasha. Next time, I need to be sure that I have killed, no more of "paralyzing." And I need to make a better battle strategy for places like these.

I focus on bringing the grass to the same waving motion as my hand and then bring my Chest from the tree. As it slowly wobbles over I think about what I did wrong and what got me into this position.

And my ass was kicked because I was stupid. Thankfully not as much as the Garde in that government place. I'm not making another mistake like this, I just need to kill those I injure immediately.

I open my Chest as Mila's paws push it closer to me. I shuffle through it and find the healing stone. I consider putting it to my shoulder, but rethink and place it to the scrapes on my legs. I sigh as the pain dully increases then subsides. No scars this time.

I put the healing stone back in and take out my concealer and cover up the scars on my face with the cold tanned foam when I hear sounds coming from the Chest. I shuffle the rocks around quickly but then slow my pace. I find the red bag glowing and take out the stone.

"Nine, hurry up this thing is taped," someone says. _The numbers..._

My heart leaps to my throat, and Mila looks at me curiously. The voices fade off and I shake the rock, and it pulses a little more.

"Well she or he is in North Carolina," a female voice says, and I listen closer, unwilling to say anything.

"What are they doing in North Carolina?" a male voice asks..

_I have no idea. Blame it on that serpent, she is the one who knocked me off her back. Wait, they?_

"Ella, try communicating with her," I hear, again the same female voice.

"I was trying for the last thirty seconds," a different female voice.

"Hello, Five? I'm talking to a rock, this shit is crazy…" the male voice trails off, and I suppress laughter.

"Yes Nine, you are," I hear a little further off, and press the Macrocosm to my ear.

"Come on Five, we know you're in North Carolina. If you aren't going to respond, we are shutting off," a voice I quickly discern as being female. She's overconfident, and I wait. The connection isn't shut off, and I hear someone sighing, probably the female. Empty threat.

"Seriously, are you for or against meeting up with us?" the first voice, Nine, says.

I sigh, and the other side is laced with silence. "OK what?" I say in my most obnoxious teenage voice, an easy feat.

I hear some celebrations on the other end, but are quickly silenced. Nine furiously says, "What were you doing for the last twenty minutes that I've been talking to a rock?" I roll myself over and face the sky, the crystal blue slowly turning darker. I close my eyes and let my third open and find the nearest airport. Good, a walking distance.

"Saving 15% on my car insurance," I reply innocently. I hear (badly) suppressed laughter on the other end.

"Um yeah, sure, wait you have a car?"

"Yes," I reply sarcastically. "My good friend Napolean Bonaparte gave it to me as a birthday present."

He is silent long enough before the mocking laughter begins, just long enough for me to tell that the Mogs have tuned in. Good. I remember the closest Mog bases.

"Is he a Loric ally?" Nine asks, and I clutch my hand to my mouth as hard as I can.

"Yes," I say. "He told me to say hi to the rest of you."

"Tell him I said thanks," Nine replies. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing," I say quickly and everyone on the other end follows suit. Wow.

"Tell him about Setrakus Ra," I hear from the other end. I wave my hand around and the blades of grass move with it.

"Yeah well Setrakus Ra has shown his ugly head here in the Southwest, I nearly kicked his ass but Johnny pulled me back…" I roll my eyes, the ego is so obvious, and tune him out until he says. "Anyway, can you like meet up with us. So we can kick his ass completely?"

I slowly sit up, keeping my eyes closed, and breathing slowly. I examine the bruises forming on my leg as I respond loudly and clearly, "In Canada. Meet me in the tundra, west of Alaska. Take a plane from wherever you are and meet me there." I open my mind eye, they are in SoCal. It will take them less time them me to get there. Good.

"Why in Canada?" a higher voice asks, male, but not of the other two. Not Johnny or Nine.

"Because I like fur coats," I say, dryly. I find my boots from under the marked tree and, take a few poison capsules from my chest. I put them into the stiletto part of my boot and slowly push them in.

"Alright, sure," they agree, I'm not sure who. I take another poison capsule out, a different kind, and slowly draw the liquid out. I put it against the setting sun and see it turn a shade of hue. I bring my butterfly clip back to me from the grass and put it in the hallow talon of the clip.

"See you there," I say, trying to keep the menace out of my voice. So easy. I put the Macrocosm back into my Chest and snap it shut. I stand up and let the weakness fade from my legs, too slowly, and throw my coat over my shoulders. My Chest goes into my purse and that onto my good shoulder. I open my mind eye, and follow its lead to Seattle. And the Mogs are dispatching a team to where I said over the Macrocosm. Along with Maxus, my smile grows wider. And the trap is set.

**Don't expect me to update really often, I have school and it's supposed to get really hard for the end of the quarter (shoot me...). I won't quit the story, because it'll be interesting to me for a while. I will try to update.**

**By the way, I'm not trying very hard on this, I'm doing this mostly for fun for a fandom I (mostly) like. Five's human alias is Sasha by the way, and she thinks of herself as Sasha. It's a Russian name, short for Alexandra (and different spellings of it).**


	2. Chapter 2

**This is mostly a filler chapter for slight development, you can skip to the last part if you want actual relevant plot development. I didn't like writing this either. Anyway, on to the story.**

-/-/-/

**Four**

The sunlight filters through the heavy curtains, and I lift them up and out. They hook onto the curtain latches and Sarah turns over, the smile widens on my face.

"Morning, beautiful," I say, and Sarah turns over and smiles. I lean down to kiss her, and she opens her eyes and then closes them.

"Hey," she says, "Airplane today."

"I always hated them," I sigh and prop myself up on my elbow.

"Why?"

"They scare me, it's a tiny space, in the air several thousands of feet, and I've read about plane hijackings," I reply tartly.

"Hmm, the shower is mine first," Sarah stands up and the blanket falls from her, she must have changed into my t-shirt overnight. I collapse back onto my pillow, my elbow sore, and hear the door close.

I start laughing, the happiness bubbling up inside of me. The war is going to end. We are going to meet up with Five in eight hours, she gave us the specific address when we talked to her again yesterday. It all seemed so random then, like it was surreal. My best friend is back, I'm with my true love, and we are on track to kill Setrakus Ra.

I stretch my airs behind me and my shirt comes over my head. I stand up and go down the stairs, skipping two at a time. There are pancakes at the cafeteria, and I spot Nine, Eight, Adam, and Ella, at the table before I remember it's only 8:30. The plane is at three, and according to Nine's experience we need to be there three to four hours before. We didn't ask where the experience came from.

I get the pancakes and empty part of the bottle of the maple syrup on them and go to sit down, "Hey."

"Johnny," Nine replies absentmindedly through a shovel-full of waffles. "How was your night of magic with Sarah?"

I groan and roll my eyes and keep my lips together. Instead I direct a statement to Eight, "Did Nine annoy you over night?"

"Yes, a lot," Eight says quietly and Ella pats his back.

My eyes flick back to Nine, as I sit down, trying to reflect a silent smirk in them. As much as I want to like Nine, he made an ass of himself on the ride back. Six sided with me on that, and he got paired up with Eight over the night. At that point I couldn't have cared less about Eight's well being, but now I am. "Sorry, Eight."

"Yeah, yeah," Nine says loudly, smirking at me. I dig into my pancakes, not looking at him.

I see Six and Seven coming down the stairs, chatting and laughing. They notice us and Six jogs lightly to the table, Seven following her.

"We are finally all meeting up," Six smiles widely and Seven grins slightly, I see her looking to my right.

"Stand up," Nine says. I roll my eyes, "Six stand up."

"Why?" the look on her face mirrors disgust.

"Just do it," Nine sighs. I lean back into my seat and let my fork slide across the syrup.

Six complies, "What?"

"Turn around," Nine says. I know where this is heading now, does he really have to when we are on the even of finding Five?

She does, groaning at each step, "Okay, what now?"

"Nice ass," Nine says, and we all try to suppress our groans. Does he have to all the time be rude and condescending? Can't he be a descent human being once? I study his face, and he has no idea.

"Got no better girl to look at?" Six says nonchalantly, and Seven's cheeks redden, and her eyes flash to Eight.

"Nice ass, Seven," Nine says, and I hear someone suppressing a sigh. I look at Seven and she starts eating very fast.

I sighed, a common noise around Nine apparently, and decided that this would be a long day, what with the six hour airplane and all.

/-/-/-

Finally we get on the plane, after waiting several hours in security, apparently other transcontinental airlines decided to put their flights on for today.

I pull my seat belt tighter, and slide my hand into Sarah's. The business class seats lean back somewhat far, but the flight attendant tells me to put it back up. I do that, and find the headphones and put them in, turning it onto a blank channel- the plane hasn't taken off yet. Sarah leans against my shoulder after laughing at a joke that Six made, she is sitting with Seven on the other side of the row. She intertwines her hand in mine, and I lean my head over hers. I watch the plane as it starts moving, slowly at first, the lines move faster and faster and then it tips backwards, the asphalt quickly disappearing and replaced by sky.

Eight pretends that he doesn't notice that Seven slept on him for three hours and Nine watches porn next to Ella.

It's six hours until we land in Anchorage, chasing the sunset, before we arrive and take an hour drive- a rented car soon to be destroyed (considering our track record).

/-/-/-

The snow falls around us, despite it being spring. I wrap myself in my jacket, but it's too thin to conceal myself from the cold. Sarah wanders away a little and bends down to scoop up some snow.

"Well, we're here now what?" Six asks. I shrug.

"Five said she could be late," Seven says, but more to herself than anyone.

"Well we are on time, what else should we do?" Nine asks brashly, throwing his hands out while squinting up at the setting Alaskan sun. I roll my eyes.

"I don't know sit in freezing snow?" Six retorts, her teeth shaking.

Something creeps up my spine, a feeling of either cold or dread, I cock my head trying to figure out what it is.

"Something's wrong," Eight says. I turn around a full 360 degrees but notice nothing.

"It's nothing," Sam says, but is silenced by Nine's glare. I suppress yelling at him.

"Something is seriously wrong," Eight repeats, his voice going quiet. I look around, still unwilling to say anything, and I reach for Sarah's hand. She grasps it tightly, although her face shows nothing.

I hear tiny laughter coming from the bushes, and light my hand. No heat comes. I look down at my hand and it isn't glowing. My Legacies aren't working. They literally aren't working. I concentrate on lighting my hand but hear Nine withdraw his staff.

"It's a trap!" someone shouts.

I gasp and my world becomes a whirl, I feel myself go up and hear someone scream. My body twists and turns, and I can feel someone pressing against my own body.

We are in a net twenty feet of the ground. And there is a laughing Mog below us.

/-/-/-

**Please review!**

**I didn't update for a while because I was working on other chapters, so I have an excuse. Also I procrastinated by watching Bill Maher. And no, Five is not allied with the Mogs. She's good. Somewhat. Anyway as for the ships, I stand completely clear on what I'm doing, based on what is already set up by the first three books. And wouldn't Nine annoy them? I'm thinking that he would because he isn't like any of the rest of the Garde, maybe except for Six but she wouldn't know that until later.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Alright this is the day before the ending of the previous chapter, because the flight from New York to Anchorage is about 9 and a half hours. Also, I hate writing present tense. But I started so I'll stick to it, and the books are in present tense. You can search the building Five "lives" in on Google- it's New York by Gehry. By that definition, and the one given below Five is a rich snob (and I am totally jealous of her). I had to fake some of the information so the description isn't very accurate. You can make up when Five talks to the Garde again.**

-/-/-/

**Five**

The plane lands in New York and I take out my cell phone to check for new emails. For a second I lean against my first class (I couldn't care less about the cost) and just trace the screen of my phone, relaxing in the normality of it. I don't realize how much time goes by until I distantly hear something along the lines of, "You may get off the plane now." I start up and gather my small amount of baggage and walk briskly out of the plane, none of the economy class wearing me down.

The drowsiness starts setting into my head and as soon as I get out of the hallway, I find a Starbucks and buy myself a coffee before rushing out in front of the crowd, weakly clutching my purse. I get to the line for the taxis outside of JFK, and am third in line. Behind me comes a family with four children, not on my plane, and look more tired then I do when I glance back. I don't have the energy to do a pointless more thorough analysis.

The last taxi in the long string pulls up and the person there points me to it. The taxi is an SUV that would seat five or six probably.

"You can go ahead," I say to the family.

They start to resist but I repeat, "No it's fine," and they get into the taxi, while repeatedly saying thank you.

The next string of taxis comes in another ten minutes, the rest of the people groaning as the line elongates and less and less people opt for Dial-7. I get in and tell the driver, "8 Spruce Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan."

He nods and speeds away, I watch the skyline of Wall Street loom closer, and before I know it he drops me off in front of my house, and I walk inside.

The building is New York by Gehry, my favorite building in the world- with it's wavelike exterior design that create the interesting curves of the building both inside and outside- huge bay windows and views of all of Manhattan- my apartment looks down on Manhattan northwest. It's three bedroom with enough places for all of the Garde to sleep if it came for them to have to stay, and the view is completely worth the huge rent.

The money came from all of the gems that I found near my Chest, several billion dollars worth, what I imagine other Garde have. The money was invested in several Wall Street titan companies and five apartments and three houses.

The security guard waves me in and I press the elevator button to the 71st floor, out of 76 total. The elevator doors open, and I unlock the door to my apartment. I drop my purse onto the hook of the coat closet and go straight down the hallway, turn right and pass the dining room and collapse onto the couch in the alcove under the Brooklyn and harbor view. I pull the computer out of the drawer, book myself two connecting flights tomorrow, from JFK to Seattle, and from Seattle to Anchorage.

Before my eyelids fall, I notice that I need to buy new lilies for the vase, the old ones are wilted with the brown petals floating around in murky water.

-/-/-/

The sun wakes me up, and I slowly rub my eyes and roll over. I blink and then get up and realize that I need to have breakfast, and there is none. I change and go outside to my favorite bakery where I order a croissant and coffee. I sit down at the table and solve the crossword puzzle and the sudoku in the newspaper in a matter of minutes and then get up, thank the store, and go outside. The city, long since it had woken, was now moving people to work, giant crowds of people coming out from the subways, and others, smaller crowds, off of buses. I buy the flowers- this time exotic purple orchids that would contrast nicely with the celadon vase, and other plain white lilies.

When I come back I arrange the flowers, four orchids in each of the smaller. lower "pots" and the lilies in the main part. There is a war going on, and Garde to save in several hours from Maxus, but the flowers need changing.

Finally Mila contacts me that she is there and waiting for Maxus with his team of spekkies and the Garde, and I leave for the airport, and to the very long flight.

-/-/-/

I tell the taxi driver in Anchorage the address a few miles away from where the Garde have been for an hour now. I watch the April snow fall grazing the window before the driver lets me out after I pay and thank him.

The forest is right behind the houses and I see no lights on, I sprint to the treeline and crawl up the closest one, going higher and higher. When I reach the top, the snow bites my cheeks but I locate the path Mila gave me.

I leap across the trees, pressing my hands against one tree branch and pushing to the next, the pine needles brushing against my hair, my breathing growing increasingly quick, and the blood rushing to my ears. Catlike landings to the next branch and flipping up to the higher ones, going higher and farther, following the trail Mila gave me. Several times I slip, for different reasons each time, but I quickly learn to avoid the snow patches and the redder branches. My heart beats faster and faster until I finally see the three spekkies.

They aren't supposed to be there. The Garde were supposed to kill them. Like now. Alright, Plan B.

I stop, in the branches right above them, and wrap the shadows around me, they could only see me if they knew I was here. They don't look up. Good. I quietly and slowly withdraw the three red capsules from my teal purse and bend down over them. I quickly calculate that it will take two seconds to fall. I drop them and before they can look up at the falling objects the poison is in their veins and they are on the ground, dead.

After I drop down I realize that it was a horrible waste, I should have just snapped their necks. Well I learned something. I continue on, in shadow form, only about a hundred years to the huge clearing in the woods

I crawl up to the lamp, in shadow. It's not really a lamp, it's a video camera, and I need to merge with it- Legacy number three.

I listen in closely, hearing snaps of Maxus's familiar voice asking where the last one is, if they knew where I was. Perfect time for an entrance, I suppose

"Looking for me?" I say walking out of the shadows, my back solidifying and my head slightly bowed.

He looks at me, giving a slow once-over, pointedly stopping at my breasts and hips. I wait for his response and he says, "That shirt makes you look so anorexic."

The heat starts rising to my cheeks and I struggle to respond, "Exactly what I was going for."

"Nice new hairstyle," he says as fake as he can muster while sounding genuine to an untrained ear, I study him closer. "Although I miss the blonde, the purple looks nice too."

"Thank you, I got tired of the whole dumb blond stigma," I respond in equal tone. "Nice crew cut, how's the wife by the way?"

"Good," he says as passively as he can.

"And the kids?" I say.

"Going to school."

"Oh yeah, a little birdy named... well I'm not telling, told me that your girls are doing well in that AP math class they are in in that school in Colorado, and your boy, whatever his name is, is hooked on pot."

"Yes, we're very proud of him," Maxus responds flashing a fake smile.

I start feeling the net with the Garde with the telekinesis. I can't move it. I try harder, and it doesn't move, and I struggle to keep my eyes from moving there. I open my mind eye for a brief second before Maxus can register the glazing of my eyes. It's Legacy proofed. That's why they didn't get out and the spekkies were alive. I resist a groan before starting the telekinetic energy from inside. I can, I move the Garde around a little, then hear grunts. I can't move the energy out of the net though.

"Do you like the new litter law?" he asks. I roll my eyes and remember what it is- instead of burning the trash from the Bases which creates toxic (to them only) air they throw it in the ocean.

"If have to throw something in the ocean to keep the fish amused, how about Qadaffi?" I say with a smirk.

It takes him a second to understand the reference and while he is distracted I say, "Want to see my hair clip? It's from Versace." I put the accent on Versace and I see the paranoia shatter away from his face. I resist the urge to grin as I take out the large butterfly clip, he should know better. He really should. I toss it to him, he lifts up his hand and I turn the teeth right to the wrist, and speed it up.

He catches the clip and looks it over, I see the capsule enter the veins in his wrist and I push it in further. He turns the clip over and my heart catches in my throat. It should work faster than that. Just in case I slide my hand down to my boot and feel the other poison capsule with my telekinesis.

Then his face goes slack, the hair clip drops into the snow, and I whip my arms around bringing him flying over here. The rage fills my heart and I can barely restrain myself when I smash him against the tree, keeping one hand on the back of his neck, my nail grows to a point, and the other one blocking the two capsules on his uniform from his mouth.

"How did you," blood spurts out of his mouth, "How did you..."

"Tell me the pass code," I say calmly slowly, my mouth next to his ear.

I see the tears streaming down his face, his breathing grows ragged, but he's faking it- he isn't dying, yet.

"You won't," he coughs more, but he does it too hard and again faked. I know the effects of the poison "You won't get away with this." He glances up to the direction of where the guards were.

I want to keep him looking there, waiting for something that will never come, make him feel exactly the way I felt a year back, wait embarrassingly forever. But I have a job to do, I need to get into the base. The torture will be for when he resists. And he will. "Save your strength, they aren't coming."

His eyes fill with rage and I cock my head sideways, slightly squinting.

"Tell me the pass code to the base," I repeat, making my voice sharper.

"Never," he gasps. Whatever strength he had left fades and I keep him hoisted up against the tree. Such delusions of grandeur.

"Tell me," I say slowly whispering into his ear. Before he gets a chance to respond I continue, "Or I will torture you in a way that you couldn't dream up in a thousand years, and I know you dream dark." I trace his ear with the hand previously grasped at his neck.

He shivers but manages to whisper, "You don't have the guts."

He knows I won, he is just trying to get out without selling out his race's top military base.

I dig my nail into the back of his neck, slowly puncturing the skin, then feeling the current pf his blood then moving around slowly. All the while he is screaming, but I tune it out, and find the nerves. Slowly, deliberately, I move them just the slightest but, not enough to paralyze him, but enough for him to scream and sob and swear enough to put a shiver through the Holy Spirit's sacredness.

"You won't do more," he whispers futilely. "You don't have the second part." His eyes widen in the realization of the mistake he thinks he made, I resist laughter.

I hook my thumb onto the point of my stiletto and the red tube slides out. I show it to him but then quickly cover it up as if it's a juicy secret that cannot leave the playground. The tears run down heavier and faster.

I slide my finger out as slowly as I can, he stops screaming. "Tell me the pass code, it's not that hard, and you will rid yourself of future agony that will last until the Devil claims your soul in a hundred long years and your family long before then. Even your newborn won't be spared if you don't comply." The words leave my lips and I feel sick as soon as they do, but I know it won't come to that. I hope it won't.

He looks down and nods to himself then looks up, he is going to tell me. I ease my thumb against the puncture in the back of his neck. Then I flatten that hand, the outside pressed against skin flaked with dry blood. The other hand moves slowly up to his jawbone while he talks. "5-7-0-9-4-blue-green-space-0-9-5-3-0."

I snap his neck.

/-/-/

**Thank you for all the reviews! I really appreciate it and it makes my day :)**

**As for shipping, Six and Nine will be a couple at one point. I don't believe in the whole true love thing (which makes me annoyed whenever I write Sarah-Four) or "made for each other." Generally I don't ship and very rarely do I like romance in a book. As for future reference, I changed her human name from Sasha to Lilia because I want some symbolism in here.**

**And did anyone get the reference in the conversation between Maxus and Five?**


	4. Chapter 4

Sorry for the fake chapter post but I wanted to say that I am going on vacation to a place without constant internet but I will try getting chapter 4 published by next week. I started chapter 4 already though and I have ideas for more plot stuff.


	5. Chapter 5

**And I'm back from vacation, and it's like 60 degrees colder here. Good news is, I have a complete outline of what is in chapter 5 so I will get that up hopefully tomorrow. Sorry that this is filled with mostly dialogue. I want to have Marina as POV for the next chapter.**

**Because he had to be the POV and because you had to see the paranoia of Nine.**

**-/-/-/**

**Nine**

The net falters and drops, I immediately sprint with Six to Five who is wiping her blood-stained (gross) hands over the snow. She looks up and I lunge for her, Six goes the other way, the strategy is immediate. I grab air. I turn around and she is behind me and I swing a punch, and again I hit nothing. I start going faster and faster, throwing punches and eventually yanking the staff out of my Chest and fighting synchronously with Six, I try to get her. She led us into a trap. She betrayed the Garde. The thoughts fill me with even more drive and anger and I spot the figure skirting around my legs and try to go on top of it but I can't.

I pause. Six is panting heavily and so am I and we lock eyes. When I look down there is a giant black cat, no wait a leopard, staring up at me with cold blue eyes. I shiver before the rage warms me up again- Five is a traitor to the Loric. A soft laughing noise resonates, and I can see through the flush in my cheeks that the rest of the Garde have moved to surround the perimeter of the area of the field.

Five is standing the in the center of the circle and the leopard stays staring at me with the ice. How did she get there? How the hell did Five evade us again? Well she won't anymore. I ready myself to go for her and then I hear, "Nine stop it."

I look to Six who is barely being restrained by Sam and then to Eight who said it and then to Five who laughs quietly to herself. She says something, and it takes me a second the realize that it's in a foreign language before the leopard walks over to her. She says something else to the leopard in a more motherly tone, I can see the disgust in the Garde's faces and join in with them. When Five looks up to see our faces she leans back into her boot, how the hell is she balancing in whatever those are called.

_What is she wearing? _I hear Six's disgusted voice in my head and feel the presence of Ella, Eight, Seven, and Four.

_Dark blue silk tube top with a sweetheart neckline, black leggings, and five inch stiletto thigh-high boots, _Ella responds and I roll my eyes at her before flicking them back to Five. She is watching us carefully and as soon as her eyes flick to me I glare at her.

"You better explain yourself," Four says in a low voice.

"Or else you can guess what happens," I add in my most threatening voice.

She just laughs and then says, "Or else nothing but whatever. OK, what do you want to know?"

"What the hell were you thinking? You are a traitor to the Loric," I shout and the anger swells again before Six lays her hand over mine. I lean into her hand immediately but momentarily giddy at Six's hand _on mine. _Yes, progress!

Five looks down at our hands and looks back up at me smirking. I challenge her with a glare even as Four and Eight follow her gaze. Six quickly withdraws her hand and the giddy feeling is gone. I hate Five more.

"You going to let me explain?" she says. When I start thinking she continues, "Hey you either give me permission now or it's never."

Who does she think she is, trying to escape us? I banish all thoughts of the leopard skirting around mine and Six's legs unknowingly.

Ella's hand presses against my back and my heart beats loudly into it, adrenaline pumping, but I don't move a muscle. For the first time I take a good look at Five. She's somewhat short, probably shorter than Six, though pretty much everyone looks short from my point of view. I think I grew in prison, along with getting much stronger, and my perception is skewed big time. Five isn't at all hot, like Six, but she isn't ugly either, black hair with some purple on the side that flies loosely, and her hair doesn't look very brushed. I can't see her eye color from here, but the tone I can see switches from blandness to brief amusement. For the quickest second I wonder how much her Cepan asked her to brush her hair. Then I remember that I can't compare her to a person. She's not.

"Go ahead," Eight says and I shoot him a glare. He responds by raising his eyebrows.

"You better explain," I spit out, and she shakes her head amused. The hatred swells again and I start repeating in my head that I will kill her when she isn't looking.

"Well," she pauses and giggles slightly. What does she think she is? "Maxus is better dead than live and if you guys want me to I'll explain why later and we are standing on a Mog base that would be nice if it were blown up."

"You betrayed and you led us into a trap," Four says and I almost admire that the kid has balls. He says it in a completely steely, calm voice.

"I led Maxus into a trap. And I got the security code to the least guarded entrance of this Base, speaking of which can we go yet?" she whines like a _baby. _"Two rocks with one stone."

"You got six Garde in one net too," Six says frostily. I hide laughter but as soon as I see Five doing the same I stop and resume glaring. I will kill Five.

"Over a Mog base which won't know we are coming," she repeats, annoyance (why?) apparent on her face.

When her words register, we all stare at Adamus and Five also, confusing and having a strange expression on her face, not a hot one.

"Yeah we are," Adamus manages to say. "But it's kind of impossible."

Everyone stares back at Five and she says, "So you're the rogue Mog."

"How do you know?" Adamus splutters and I glare at him- my eyes are starting to get tired- for not keeping composure.

"A little birdy named-"

"Don't start with that crap again," Six says.

"Anyway, it's impossible to get through this base, this is the weapons deployment with people who know how to use them," Adamus says with more confidence arousing a glowing pride in me before the reality returns that she led us into another trap. I reach for my pike staff slowly and carefully.

"Wanna bet?" she asks with a smile you see on a piranha before it bites. Or a daredevil smile. No, definitely a piranha.

"How much?" Seven asks, her high voice speaking for the first time.

"10,000 dollars," Five says and Four's jaw drops.

"You made a Bill Maher reference!" Sam squeaks from his place in the circle. What's the nerd talking about now?

"Actually that was a Mitt Romney reference," Five says in a disgusting gloating voice. Who's Mitt Romney and Bill Maher?

"No before, with Qaddaffi and the fish, you made a reference to Bill Maher!" Sam repeats. Who's Qadaffi?

"Actually I made a reference to bin Laden but I got it from Bill Maher." Five answers with a more pleasant smirk on her face.

Who's bin Laden? Wait isn't he that guy who was on the news several days before I got captured and being talked about the President and a bunch of celebrating people? A lump forms in my throat. Five knows that I got captured and she said that thing about Qadaffi, whoever he is, that connects to whoever bin Laden is, she is saying that just to get to me. It isn't working, she won't get to me, and then I will kill her.

"Anyway, whichever number you are," she points to Seven, "you're standing on the control thing to get into the base. You know the one that if we neutralize Setrakus Ra will have a bad day? And stop weapons shipment to all over the entire Western world."

Seven fidgets aside but before Five takes a step I say, "No way are we going into a Mog base. We are going to a hotel and staying there."

"Scared?" Five smirks.

"She's baiting you," Four says to loudly for me to forgive him and I glare at him even harder when Six supresses a giggle. Really, everyone but me is kind of pathetic, holding laughter.

"No, duh," Five says nonchalantly and Seven completely moves aside, her dark eyes staring at Five's shoes. No, Seven, you are taller than her, wow Five really is short like less that 5'5" short, you should be staring down at her defiantly and not let her beat you. I will kill number Five.

"Wait, who said we are going into the base?" Sarah says nervously.

Five sighs loudly, "I'm going in, any further argument which I doubt I will get is a waste of time, it's your choice if you want to go. I would like all of you to come, it would make neutralizing every shipment and if _wanted_ killing every Mog easier," she does some elaborate movement in her arms and before a second can pass the keypad out of a stick comes out. It looks like something Sandor would have designed. The lump thickens.

I watch her bend over slightly and type in the code, all I remember are some five's and nine's and something red in there from what the nasty dude said. I let myself admire

"So are you coming?" she isn't looking at any of us but I know it's directed at me. This is another trap, we cannot go.

I hear Ella join me in with everyone else and before long all of the no's become yes's and I am glaring once again at everyone else.

"Lighten up," Eight says to me and I humph. I hate Mog bases. Human US ones aren't better either. They are all filth, only surpassed by Five, at least they didn't (with the exception of Adamus) betray their own kind.

"It's a yes," Four proclaims. I roll my eyes and grip my staff tightly, Six doesn't look happy either.

"If you don't explain fully your plan, your reasoning, and everything involving you after this is over-" Six is interrupted by Five.

"What are you, stalkers? But, fine, I guess," she says to my eye roll and silent fury. I will kill number Five.

The hole opens up and I immediately notice it's a sort of service hallway. I listen closely for noises before we descend, my head buzzing from unanimous defeat from my own fellow Gardes. I will murder Five when we get out and she won't know it's coming.

**-/-/-/**

**Sorry that this was mostly dialogue but like I said I want to have Seven as POV. I'm not sure when I'll delete the fake chapter 4, probably when I get two chapters in at the same time. And any reference to living people is entirely intentional and I am trying to be nonpartisan here. It is during the United States presidential election, there is chronological proof that it is during 2012 in the actual books, like all of the end of IANF-TRON and on. But if you don't like politics, there won't be too much of it, just Sarah being mad at Five because Five is a Democrat (and a registered one) and Sarah is a Republican. A non-voting-eligible one. **


	6. Chapter 6

**I sacrificed doing some of my homework for getting this up sooner :)**

**I incorporated some of Marina's Spanish culture: Partido Borracho means drunk party and con nada means with nothing. Thank you to whoever invented google translate.**

**And wow this is long. I gagged when I wrote "strong and true and pure." **

**In which Five is a bitch:**

**-/-/-/**

**Seven**

The lights are lit inside of the Mog base and the harrowing feeling catches in my breast. It's a long hallway with many doors on either side with Five explains that she will throw a bomb into, those contain the shippings to other bases and armies. I'm amazed at how confidently Five handles being in a base- a Mog one. I don't see her face but I imagine it's equal to the one she had while she was, I shiver, while she was torturing Maxus. She explained to us briefly that she sabotages each of the weapons and the box as a whole in certain places to make each thing not work.

"Sarah you should leave," John says in a no-nonsense voice and I catch Nine rolling his eyes and Five slightly ahead of our mass placing a tentative hand against a wall.

"Why?"

"Because this is dangerous."

"I'm strong enough, why shouldn't I be?"

"You haven't been fighting long enough, I don't want to see you get hurt," it's not the first time they have been at this, arguing about Sarah's safety.

Nine looks ready to say something but Six stops him with another caress of the hand. I catch Sam staring at the two and roll my eyes hypocritically thinking that romance should not be a factor. But then I catch Eight's eyes and he looks away, reddening. Something falls inside of me, we haven't talked since The Kiss at Dulce, not when we found Adamus or Sam.

I don't worry about John and Sarah, Six confided in me that she would prefer they stay together, it is easier for her to fight when she isn't focused on love and John and Sarah's love is strong and true and pure.

When I catch Five with a horde of Mogs, my breath catches. The way I know it's Five because occasionally there is a flash of a boot or a hand that isn't deathly pale and looks tanned in contrast, or midnight blue silk fabric. I point Ella there and Ella's jaw drops in amazement. How could someone in a human body and stilettos be doing that? She's in _stilettos_, four inches high.

"Is she going to be OK, what's happening?" Ella whispers. I see Five come into view again there are only three Mogs, the rest lying on the ground bleeding. Five isn't holding a weapon. She isn't.

Eight asks the question for me and Ella, Six is too invested in watching the suppressed fight between Sarah and John.

Two Mogs come at her with spears pointed and before I can breath she sweeps her arms backwards and curved and then forwards and sideways, the movement is beautiful for her small frame and it looks like she is in a dance in the pointe shoes we were once showed in class, moving her arms to music instead of being on a battlefield.

It reminds me of her leopard, I think it's hers, she had said several orders to her in the other language which I recognized as part of the Slavic family.

I see Six diverts her attention to the fighting mass and gasps before immediately dismembering the last of them. Five was just ducking and dodging his spear. Nothing else, no weapons.

Five bends down to pick up a spear and walks over to John and Sarah. Both stop arguing and stare at her. She gives the spear to Sarah who fingers the handle awkwardly, the whole thing is taller than her.

"Don't poke your eye out," Five smirks then strides ahead, the rhythm of stilettos against steel sounding throughout the hallway.

"What about cameras?" Nine yells after her like he just realized, or just got an opportunity to talk. She turns around, visibly confused and then I back up slowly against the wall, oh my god the cameras, they can see us, the damaged shipments and us.

"Don't worry," she calls back.

"Are you trying to get us into another net, yourself included?" Six joins in, practically screaming her hair is wild, and I consider saying something too. I don't want to be in a Mog prison,

Five stops and turns around, "I disabled the cameras before I even got to Maxus, all of the cameras it's a Legacy. Seriously, I never go into a base before disabling the cameras, not that much of an idiot."

She steps into the next hallway not before looking around the corner and turns around, "Alright there is a giant room full of Mogs and the exit I told Mila," we raise our eyebrows and she explains, "my leopard, to meet us by. So we can either fight the Mogs, go to the control room and get information but there is much more risk associated with that, and like whichever number said, I don't want to be in a net, or we can get out."

In a way, raiding a base with Five was oddly anticlimactic and without event, just us following Five who expertly knew what to do. But then again, none of us wanted her to take care of much anyway- Maxus was less terrifying than her way of dealing with him. The picture of him screaming and writhing enters my head and Five's expressionless face surveying what she was doing, psychopathic face.

"Fight the room full of Mogs," Nine says immediately, before withdrawing his staff, glowing red with rotating blades. Well, a climax, and Eight agrees as does Six. Four tells Sarah and Sam and Ella to stay and I feel sorry for them, but know I am only needed for healing. Better there where I can take care of it immediately.

Five raises her eyebrows and her right shoulder cocks forward mechanically. She waves her hand and tells us where the room is and adds that we can enter dramatically however we want.

We do, pipes glowing, and weapons out and hands ablaze and the room of training Mogs, there's at least five hundred of them, and it's probably the funnest thing ever, scaring everyone.

Nine quickly moves to those most powerful, Six upset that she didn't get them, works on the training pikens and krauls, and Four the majority, and I can't keep my eyes long enough on Eight to see him. I sit down in a chair in the corner before Six comes to me with part of the skin on her arm missing. I hugely admire how she just rolls her eyes before giving it to me, not even screaming, when I am reeling from the blood. I can tell she is only here to keep me not bored, she is perfectly capable of staying in battle.

She comes back into the fight running, with a Mog weapon she controls with her mind protecting her. I watch mystified for several minutes.

"Such a shame you aren't fighting," I hear a voice simpering behind me. I turn around to see Five, and I immediately banish the redness from my cheeks. She continues, something sparkling in her- I think- green-brown eyes, "Well considering the strength of Six and how unnatra-untrained you are, it's no surprise that you can't fight."

"It's not my place to fight now, and besides I can't," I whisper.

"I totally agree," she says, "Some people can figure out how less muscle can be more strength of a different kind, but you have to have a higher intelligence to that," she stares at me pitifully, and I suddenly get the vivid image of Six looking at me the same way, my cheeks grow hotter and my stomach knots. She's completely right, I'm not strong, and I didn't have the training to get some strength.

"I mean, it's not like you can or have the ability to. Even you know it. Such a pitiful waste for a Garde," Five looks at me again with pity and starts walking away. I wish more than anything that Six was here so that she could beat her up on the lie that I am not weak.

Then something rises in me and I square my shoulders. Six solving my problems? She doesn't have to.

"You're wrong," I say. She turns around and I see her fighting a certain facial expression, or maybe I'm imagining it.

"I can fight," I say louder.

"Really?" she asks. What, she doesn't believe me? I'm a member of the Garde, and I will prove this girl wrong.

"Yes, really," I say in the most "well, duh" condescending voice I can, trying to mirror Gabby and her gang.

"Prove it," she says and I smile, she said exactly what I wanted her to. A smirk spreads on my face, and she cocks her head, a righteous look crossing her face. She reaches into her shirt and I raise my eyebrows, maybe I am too much of a nun. Five pulls out a dagger and tosses it to me. I catch it and finger it around and find the handhold, it fits perfectly. Five's hands and mine are the same size, and the dagger is a plain grey metal.

I smirk back at her, before I realize I am behaving to much like Nine and stop averting my eyes. Five groans and looks away and the embarrassment descends on me before I flip my hair, not even wondering what I am doing, and walk- walk!-into battle.

For the first Mog I slam the knife blade into his face and turn it sideways. He crumples not dead yet, but that only fuels me to stab him again in the heart. I only see Five's still doubtful expression and I hunger to prove it wrong. I wonder quickly whether I should be doing this but then I remember Adelina and the knife plunging in. I could have done something, I failed, I lost the last Cepan alive, (Five probably doesn't have hers since she came alone), and I lost someone who would have been so much help. I lost the only mother I have left. The knife slips from my fingers and I feel the adrenaline leaving me and replaced with a well-deserved hatred with Five.

Five cocks her head confused- shouldn't she be expecting this?- and walks over. I stay silent not meeting her gaze. Turns out I was lying not she, my heart is swallowed in my throat. I notice that a Mog behind her and before I can slowly grab the knife, his head is on the ground and Five holds two long swords in her hands. I watch in silence as she slides them back into her pants while staring at me in an expression I can only describe as c_on nada. _For the first time I see that her eyes- the feeling not the color- are foreign and look somewhat Eastern European.

"You have a human name?" Five says and then another Mog approaches as quietly as he can correctly assuming I won't say anything. Five turns around and with a horrible crunch his neck snaps and he is nothing.

"Marina," I whisper.

"Sea," she says and I glance at her surprised before she snaps another neck to my wince.

"How do you know that?" I ask.

Five smiles, it's a somewhat pleasant expression, "Mare means sea on Latin and maria is Latin plural in nominative and accusative."

"Hm," I say, not knowing what else to say to distract her from my weakness. Then I add, "Why are you wearing a tube top and stilettos, it's winter here, this is very idiotic of you."

"Tube top because it hides weapons really well, and I just took off my coat for talking to Maxus, to you know, distract him. Stiletto boots because the stilettos are made up of poison capsules and the boots also hide weapons really well. Also the tube top has this really warm material on the inside. But yeah my arms kind of froze after I stopped moving around but the stilettos, I don't know I'm used to walking in them, but it also sucks because I have to make sure my achilles tendon doesn't shorten."

It's a shock hearing her say the word "sucks" and using such loose speech, but before I can think about it further Five switches topics.

"So you really can't fight. What a shame, you were doing _so _well before," Five returns to her normal expression of snark before something in a Mog snaps. There is blood and ash on the floor and I see Five pulling her hand out of the layers of fabric into her short, just the tiniest glint of a metal blade visible. The unknown advantages of wearing a tube top in winter. "Anyway, I would like to see you fight, but I doubt that you will with you and your... issues."

I open my mouth in shock, how could she know about Adelina!

"Again, you're wrong," I say, the words leaving my mouth before I know it. No she isn't, I just proved that she is right, I can't fight, only heal.

"You are going to have to prove it again," she says, her small chest heaving. I don't know why I'm paying so much attention to her figure but she looks like a prima ballerina, perfect proportions, something I don't and never will have. "And completely."

She turns around and I start laughing, oddly. What am I doing? I don't want to die. But I still go right into the heat of battle to help Six and Nine and Four and Eight- no fight the Mogs. I take the dagger from Five telekinetically and I imagine her smiling.

I use telekinesis to rip apart some Mogs and more with the dagger, it's instinct for me, and I imagine through every slash and rip that Five is staring approvingly, and happy that she is proven wrong. Or unhappy, that suits better. At one point I see Nine and he stares at me confused before I whip the knife around like a boomerang, like I did with the paintbrush when attempting abstract art. Five in one, but they aren't ash. I consider leaving them to suffer but I wink at Nine to kill them which he does with a broad smile. The unsettling feeling of murdering someone and having blood on my hands breaks through the feeling of pride from Five and I stop in the middle of the battlefield.

A spear comes flying at me and embeds itself in my leg, I fall. This is Five's fault, she put me into this, she wants to see me injured. I imagine her approving face instead of disapproving.

Six comes in front of me fighting and ripping Mogs and cannons with her bare hands and I watch mesmerized as I pull the spear out without screaming and heal it. She protects me throughout the minute it takes then looks down at me still crumpled on the ground and screams at me, "Why are you here fighting, go back over there!" before leaving.

I lay there gasping and infuriated before lazily swiping the dagger against the Mog thinking only rage. When the blood spurts out and onto the floor, I stand back up and slowly do the same to the rest of the Mogs, but I still see Five's disappointed but not surprised face looming, so I go faster and faster and try to change that expression into one of pride, the possibility of pride.

Why doesn't anyone believe I can do anything but kill?

Eventually there are no Mogs left, mostly killed by Nine who looks like a _partido borracho, _celebrating. I scan the room for Five and walk to the others, John and Sarah and Sam standing together close to the exit and waving us out with tired smiles. Well this wasn't a total, as the Americans call it, bust. Five slowly rises from the ground using one arm and stands back up straight. I notice her perfect posture and subconsciously correct my own. Eight joins me while I am walking and smiles and takes my hand. I try not to scream and giggle, but the emotion does succeed in stamping all other ones.

Five walks back briskly and evenly, a look of nothing on her face, but then a wince breaks through. When Five comes over everyone looks at her, but she isn't limping. Five lifts her hand to her right shoulder and I see her move her hand hard and there's a loud metallic crack, both of us wince, me from the sound.

"What happened?" Eight asks and my heart hardens at the look of concern for Five on his face.

"Bone dislocated," she says. Why didn't she ask me to heal it, she saw me healing Sam.

"That sounded like metal," Ella says and I see her leaning into Six. I wave her over and Ella comes over and fits very nicely under my arm. She shouldn't have gone here into the base. She should have taken Nine's suggestion, gone to a hotel with Sarah and Sam and me.

But I flick my eyes back to Five who closes her eyes and sighs. For the first time I notice the scars around her shoulder, small and big and many of them from the back to the front. I wonder what happens but chide myself, it is rude to think of the misfortune of others.

"You want the whole story or-"

"The whole story," Nine interrupts immediately. Five smirks slightly and gathers her hair into a ponytail.

"Well I was in China, around Manchuria- the northeastern steppes- fighting some bad dudes, the only thing I remember about them," it's like she is anticipating the questions that are sounding in my head by Four, Six, and Nine, "is that they had guns that shot some kind of shredder bullets," at our looks of confusion Five rolls her eyes and explains, "they shred into a lot of really small hot pieces of metal upon impact and are still going really fast post impact. Anyway, I got one into my shoulder and, well, several hours later I had complete reconstructive surgery on my shoulder. And no I'm not telling you what happened in those several hours because you really don't want to know."

"Which means?" Nine prompts. Five looks at him confused, but my breath is still taken away. Her entire shoulder was completely blown apart. Oh my god, she must have been screaming. I wonder if she was under anesthesia during the surgery.

"Which means nothing except for my shoulder being entirely made out of metal bone and fake ligaments and muscle and tendons. Sometimes the metal dislocates because there isn't any cartilage or anything that a natural shoulder has to keep the metal in. Anyway, there's a hotel three miles south from here that I have been to before, it's OK, nice food."

She's changing the subject, and Nine sighs and looks at Six who stares back at him with the same annoyed expression.

"I say we get a guillotine," Nine says seriously and I briefly remember what a guillotine is. Seriously.

Five laughs, "Gonna use it on Dick Cheney?"

Sarah looks infuriated and argues back saying that another guy with a less weird name isn't any better and Five says to save the political discussion until we get to that hotel and, "seriously, they have the best Russian food outside of Russia and Brighton."

At Nine's expression, I realize that he hates Five. I try to think about her, she isn't completely bad and I don't think she had anything malevolent in mind when she led us into the trap, at least regarding us. But she isn't a nice girl, even if she is pretty and with beautiful proportions and fighting skills that can inspire envy- and have inside of me.

**-/-/-**

**Guess who Five's (sort of) love interest will be.**

**And about the above, Five is more focused than the other Garde when it comes to romance, and isn't interested in getting a boyfriend or crush, why you will find out later. Spoiler alert about that: both of the guys had problems when it came to relationships and Five does as well.**

**Five's shoulder will have a recurrence in book 5.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I had to write an essay for English and I'm really perfectionist-y when it comes to essays. But this is really long to make up for that, but maybe kind of boring.**

**Funny how none of the reviews had Four-Five or Sam-Five or Adamus-Five as potential couples. Not hinting to anything though.**

**Chinmoky ga yusei (phonetic pronunciation) is silence prevails in Japanese. And Edo is ancient Tokyo.**

**In which Five is somewhat less of a bitch.**

**-/-/-/**

Halfway through the silent walk to the hotel, I turn around to ask how are we going to arrange the rooms, already constructing sentences to say to the hostess. The pain in my shoulder rears its ugly head again but I stubbornly continue to move it back and forth, waiting for the pain to subside and the blood flow to return to normal.

"How about the lovebirds sleep together," the one with the long black hair that has too many split ends laughs.

"Oh so you and that one over there," I smirk back at him pointing to the one with the dyed blonde hair. Whoever dyed her hair did not do it well, there are dark roots and she didn't bleach her eyebrows either.

"Good idea," he responds excited and before the look of doubt can cross his face because I said it, Fake Blondie says, "Bad idea."

"How many beds are in the rooms, since you have such brilliant expertise?" the one with Middle Eastern or Indian eyes has his voice dripping with defiance.

"Two to three," I say in the same tone of voice as he had, accenting the three.

I see the threads of telepathic communication between them, and open my mind eye without stopping my stride. At first they pause and I see the conversation through my mind eye, but not participating. It's a useful skill because the ones not out of the vat have it as well.

_Let's have the powerful ones with her_.

_I'm so not rooming with her._

_Well guess what, neither am I._

_By powerful, Eight didn't mean you, Johnny. _

_Why can't we just all get separate rooms? _

_No, then Five is on her own and we are risking a shitload with that. _The speaker's voice, who I assume is the one with long black hair, turns rigid at the end.

_OK, you want to room with her as a safety precaution?_

I get bored of the conversation and leave, whatever danger may arise I can handle it, and I will still know the final decision and it is my credit card paying. Mila whisks back out of the trees and comes and rubs against my legs softly. My hand comes to the top of her head and scratches her behind the ear before she goes back to the forest. A pang in my heart comes back and I call her back to me and pet my kitty again.

After five minutes of walking in what I know is not silence the one who blew up the school, somehow all of my knowledge of which number is which faded away, says, "Alright Six and Nine are rooming with you," expected, they fought the most powerful ones back at the base, "Marina and Ella," the Tall Wuss and Short Puss, "Eight, Sam, and Adam," I look back to see who nods to which name, the shorter kid with marks from glasses on his face nods for Sam, Middle Eastern or Indian Guy nods at Eight and I make a not of that, and Adam is the Mog. I wonder if he knows about the Amazons. "And me with Sarah."

"Sarah and me," I correct.

"Eww, no, John's Sarah's boyfriend!" one of the brunettes- I already forgot- say. his name is John? De facto leader is John? Really?

I sigh heavily, "Not what I meant."

"So what did you mean?" Nine tries, a smirk playing on his face. It doesn't make him look anymore handsome.

"Sentence construction," I say stubbornly.

"Oh, is that what it is," Indian Guy- I think Eight teases but I glare at him. Not funny.

"Come on take a joke," he continues. Tall Wuss looks back at him in jealousy- she is clenching and unclenching her knuckles.

"Or better, don't, it's hilarious from over here," Nine forces out a laugh.

Suddenly heat crawls up my cheeks and I bring it back down and say roughly, "I'll be right back."

"Where are you go-" I fall into the night shadow and as quickly as I can slide through the contours of the darkness, not seeing, not hearing, but feeling. For a moment I lie next to where I know is my purse and my coat and before the longing for a warm winter coat slides through my intangible heart, I drink in the feeling that I never quite took notice of before. The shadow, contouring around where the light begins, weakening in other places, and the whole and complete feeling of while feeling nothing, being something much more. The silence in shadow, shifting and forming to whatever feeling is. People say shadow is evil, one of the many modern Culturizations of something they could never understand.

Then I slip out of the shadows and dislodge the collection of rocks and take my coat and purse out. I bring the dirt and snow back to how it used to be, and the rocks the same way, dirty side down and levitate myself a few inches to fix the snow and crystallize it. For a moment- a taxing moment for my telekinesis- I feel the fur against my skin, the soft, grey, long hair that was almost Russian in a style I had not noticed before. I let my mind's hold on my body go and fall back into the shadows and surface a hundred meters in front of them.

"Let's go!" I call back and start walking, my head slightly down so I can pop the collar up.

I enjoy the streams of awe coming from there as they scamper to follow the sound of my heels clacking against the hard pavement of the road.

Only three more miles until actual heating. My throat starts hurting and I start to feel that I am an idiot since I considered let alone followed through wearing a tube top in northern Canada. But it intimidated Maxus, and hand to hand combat was not the way to go. I wrap my coat around me tighter, the lump in my throat swelling before subsiding.

I don't pay attention to the chatter, knowing I will regret it later, and instead spend the rest of the ten minute walk- we really are speedwalking- I check over my apartments in New York, London, Milan, Moscow, and an unneeded one in Edo and all of the rentals in about ten more cities. Other than a broken teapot, they are all fine. We near the hotel and I recognize the sign in English and Russian and for what must be the tenth and last time try to use my extensive knowledge of Latin to understand what it says beyond the intuition that they all pretty much mean the same thing.

I don't listen to the others as they gesture and say something about the two wings jutting out of the main house, and the wood of walls and stone of the sidewalk. I walk in and with hesitation, they follow. They aren't sure whether or not to trust me.

The woman sitting at the desk looks up and the first thing I notice is she isn't usually there. I recognize her as Russian and say, "Hi, four rooms, two with three beds, others with two beds." I hand her my credit card and ID.

"Good, how many nights?" she asks in Russian as she types something into her laptop.

I look back and ask that to Fake Blondie. I really need to learn their numbers. I go back to observing the woman. Aside from the once-over she gave us when we walked in, she has paid no further attention. She doesn't look over my credit card for my name or anything and only asks for it at the usual time.

"Alexia," I pronounce it as if I were speaking English. She types it in, swipes the credit card and hands four room keys and tells me which one is for which room.

"Is there still dinner?" I ask.

"Yes, yes," she mumbles and types in. She genuinely looks disinterested in anything, and I notice nothing malevolent on her.

I tell Mila my room number before waving my hand for the rest to follow me downstairs to the dining room. It's only about a quarter full, and I can smell the Russian food from here. Only place within a hundred mile radius- literally- with good Russian food.

I put my coat carefully over a chair for the largest table and my purse on it. Before leaving for the food table, I make sure they are following me too and looking for the food. I don't want them searching through my purse, especially Nine.

When we come into the room for the buffet I immediately go to the metal thing with pelmeni inside and scoop ten of them- I stop myself as soon as I remember to limit what I eat so I don't gain weight.

I come back to the table before everyone else, but they also gradually come back not so long after me. The conversation is almost nonexistent and wherever there is some, it is awkward and stilted, and I can see their eyes flicking to me every now and then. I carefully meet their eyes, arranging my expression each time.

I feel my hand creeping towards the pocket of my purse. For a moment I can't find it and a feeling of panic flashes through my heart but then my fingers crasp the plastic case and I slide my phone out and draw the pattern- an x with a line connecting the two top points.

I see the body language of the other Garde and humans and the Mog (for some reason I am reminded of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)

I check my email, reply to one of the board member's proposal for new laws of some kind and forward that same message to Millicent, my friend on the board, and ask her what she thinks. A few minutes later she says that she only agrees with several clauses and she will send them to me so I can send the board my vote.

"What are you searching?" Nine asks and one glance up confirms his automatic disgust to whatever I will say.

Looking back down at my email I respond, "Daimyos."

I doubt he knows what it means and his facial expression says a) he doesn't know how to detect a lie and b) he doesn't know what a daimyo is. Typical Western.

"You have an accent!" Seven suddenly exclaims.

She just noticed? I wasn't even talking other than saying daimyo. "Yes I do, Russian."

"You're from Russia?" Sarah gasps. Oh why didn't I just say Japanese? I can talk in the language fluently, and can pass as that.

"Lorien, actually," I give a strained smile. Six lets out laughter but then quickly shuts her mouth at Sarah's withering look. De facto leader of the girls? Well she is the real blonde.

"You're from Russia," Sarah repeats slowly and I sigh, knowing to where this would lead to. She starts gasping and moving her mouth in silent words first before exclaiming, "How can you even talk about politics!"

"Why can't I talk about politics?" I say, this should be interesting, what Americans think of Russia and our system of government.

"Because you're from Russia!" she says and Nine looks fully ready to say something but I interrupt him before he can, god he hates me.

"And? How does me being from Russia change my political opinion to be any less valid?"

"Because Russia's government is terrible!" she says with no further explanation on how that would change my opinion, Four looks ready to agree with her and argue at me more and he is staring at her with doting eyes like she is intelligent.

"And how is it terrible?" I ask, raising my eyebrows. I know the answer, both from a Russian aristocratic position and an American college taught position. I doubt she knows, and if she does, to the extent I do.

"You're so brainwashed!" she exclaims again, and I am briefly reminded of Uncle Volodya saying the same to me four years ago. I was still right.

"No, I know how it's not a good government and how it got there, I just want to see if you do," I make my voice to sour candy and I see her being beguiled into the question.

"It's an oligarchy," she says defiantly and proudly and I see John smile. I start choking on laughter, I can't even finish the second half of my pelmeni. Oligarchy? That's it? It's an _oligarchy? _Aristocrats have more power than Putin? Must have changed since I was last there, I laugh harder. She stares at me confused.

"Wait, you seriously think that?" I say, stopping my laughter and arching my eyebrows.

"Well yeah," she says and I am reminded so much of me saying those same two words.

I think for a second, "Well, before World War I," I half expect her to ask what does WWI have to do with Russia but she doesn't, "yes, but now the aristocracy has no power that Putin does not have even more of."

"So what is the problem," she states more than asks, and Six rolls her eyes and whispers to Seven that this will be interesting. Well, yes it's interesting if you weren't involved in it on a daily basis for eight years.

"A lack of civil society and the fact that the president can change the constitution, and of course the corruption that came from many years of businessmen of not being able to do business well, and what Russians know how to do well it's business. Putin has more power than anyone else in Russia and many ways to easily violate the rights you take for granted here in America, and of course nuclear power, but NPT makes that into less of a problem," by the fading stamina on her face I add in the most teacher-tone I can, "It's not the Cold War."

/-/-/

Nine couldn't stop complaining when we entered the room. This was too small, that was too uncomfortable, the bathroom was in a bad location...

I wonder where he used to live and how well it's designed. Slowly I start to draw a picture of an apartment in my home that nulls his complaints.

Six rolls her eyes at him and he fake-swoons. He's only complaining for my benefit.

She leaves for the bathroom after declaring that the big bed is her bed. I take the bed next to the window and find Mila's tail within the shadows.

I tighten my core and look straight ahead, and raise my right leg to head height and push myself up to my toes stretching my ankle as far straight as it goes. My leg swings down and I spin a half rotation and my leg is back up. My balance slips for a second but I suck my core in tighter and swing my leg down, turn, and back up. I repeat, putting my arms into the same pattern of down and up. At one point I feel a hand enclose around my foot and I feel the toe-point acutely. I feel my balance fading and I swing my legs to keep on my toes before pressing back down through my heel.

When my head stops spinning I see Nine staring at me, head cocked, eyes laughing, mouth smirking.

I smirk back and lean into a split, using his hand as a stretcher. Nine starts squeezing my foot and I imagine bones breaking so I stretch my ankle to an immaculately straight line further. He squeezes my foot tighter and I pray for salvation. Not necessarily the Second Coming, although it would be nice to meet the Holy Son.

I hear the door to the bathroom open and Six walks out.

"Really?" she says and Nine's face turns red and he lets go of my foot, his hand lingering for a second. I push the pain in my foot back and don't let myself think of the idea of a fracture. He looks up at me and I remember how he fought the Mogs: all passion and no strategy. It was almost scary to watch, how he tore through them and loved it, the pain of others a reward. I keep my leg held up in a split and lower my back into a bend with my leg still up. There isn't enough stretch and I know the split and the toe point isn't perfect.

I see Nine dodging glances from Six but still staring at her butt.

Typical.

The messy covers on my bed catch my eye and I correct them before pointing my toe as much as my ankle could before walking out of the backbend. Six is wearing a funny expression and I carefully remove my toiletries bag from my purse and lock my phone completely.

I go to the bathroom then double back for my tank top and shorts- the former light pink and the latter black.

I care too much about fashion, but, since the other part of my life is war, it's worth the effort.

After using the toilet, I set by removing my makeup, putting facial cream and Mederma scar cream- something now completely pointless, brushing and flossing my teeth, and washing my hair with the shampoo I import from London. While I lather my hair I think of strategies to fight each of the Garde, each of their physical strengths and weaknesses and how it relates to me and how their fighting strategies relate to the Mogs. Apparently them fighting the room full of Mogs was a good idea.

I dry myself with one of the remaining unused towels and then put on my pajamas and leave the bathroom.

Nine is already in bed, still in jeans and Six, is, oh my hod, naked in bed. I see the pile of her clothes to the side. Why can't she put them away?

I climb into my bed and all three of us turn the light off with telekinesis. Triple negation.

"So..." Six says in the dark.

"So," Nine echoes. I grimace.

"Where... were you for the past ten years?" she says awkwardly.

"Five?"

"You first," I say, wishing I could see the awkward expression.

"Around the US and South America then Chicago then a Mog prison."

His voice grows flat by the end and my mind briefly thinks of every single possibility that could have happened.

"Five?" Six says.

"Russia for about eight years," I struggle to keep my voice from catching, "Japan for another one year, Argentina than Brazil for six months then back and forth between New York, London, Milan, and Hawaii. And Japan."

"Cool," Six says blandly. "All over in the Americas then a Mog prison in West Virginia."

I hear Nine sit up in his bed. What?

"West Virginia?" he says excited.

"Yeah..."

"I was in that one too," he says, his voice mirroring between pain and excitement.

"Really?" Six sits up in bed.

I band my head against my pillow.

Now for an icebreaker?

"I got caught four years ago," Six says.

"I got caught a year ago," Nine says. "When did you escape?"

"About a year ago," she says, and I see her eyes move to the window with the help that the moonlight gives.

"We just missed each other," Nine says in a flirtatious voice that masks whatever grief he feels well.

"Was your Cepan tortured there by the Mogs," I can barely sense the smothered grief in Six's voice.

After a pause in which I almost fall asleep, Nine answers, and I suppress a tired groan, "Yeah."

"Mine was too."

They don't say anything else and I am sleeping lightly into my pillow until I hear my name. Please, just shut up already and leave your get to know you conversation for the morning.

Before I fall asleep I see Nine looking at me with absolute hatred.

/-/

A sound penetrates my sleep and it's the sound of a staff opening. My eyes snap open and I focus on keeping my breathing deep, it's Nine. It's Nine. Nine is crawling to my bed with his staff and a knife. When he gets onto my bed, I struggle to keep my breathing normal and my eyes closed. I slowly curl my fingers around the swords I put under the mattress and then turn into shadow. I melt back and surface behind Nine and slide the swords against him pushing him to my wall.

He nearly shrieks, and my heart starts beating fast enough for me to worry if I will have a heart attack. He wanted to kill me, he really wanted to kill me, and the murderous look in his eyes only confirm that. I curse in Japanese and try to hold back tears and screams. He wanted to kill me, like stick a knife in my throat. Or a staff in my stomach. He smirks back at me and I try to catch my breath and hold up the swords at the same time with my hands shaking.

Well granted, I did put him in a net so I could get Maxus, but it was worth it, and seeing Nine's fighting style, Maxus could have and would have killed him without blinking.

I slowly withdraw my blades keeping my eyes on his but my periphery to his hands and knock the weapons out of his hand and move them under Six's covers. He won't go there.

He tried to kill me.

We continue staring at each other and I feel a grin force its way through purely out of pressure and I start reciting Latin conjugations in my head.

Porto, portas, portat.

He tried to kill me.

Portamus, portatis, portant, portabam, portabas.

He tried to kill me.

Portabat, portabamus, portabatis, portabant.

I go through the perfect and pluperfect before switching to second declension using "drag" as my word before switching to survive.

More chills come down my throat and the vivid image of the look on his face flashes in my head.

Finally, he looks away. I was only on fourth declension.

"We need to talk," I purse my lips after saying this. He groans but I don't respond, 'come on you owe me.' I know how he would respond.

I motion for him to turn around as I quickly change into pants and throw my coat over my shoulders and stride out of the door. I push him after me with a flick of my hand and turn of telekinesis. He groans quietly and Six turns over, thoroughly asleep.

"Where are we going?" he jogs to catch up to me. White steam puffs out of his throat.

"Somewhere," I say as sharply as I can.

"I'm not going if you aren't telling me," he says stubbornly, eyes glaring even with only a waning crescent to illuminate them.

I roll my eyes and respond, "I could always return the favor. Remember who was in the net."

He doesn't look embarrassed at all, only regretful that he didn't kill me altogether.

He walks behind me in silence until I stop for him to walk next to me, left periphery on him. I turn on many familiar roads and he pauses each time to open his mouth and whines where are we going but each time I respond with nothing.

Finally we come to an almost empty town center after crossing through three streets of houses and I open the door to the tavern. He opens his mouth in disgust and exclaims, "This?"

"Yes, this," I say blandly and I let the warm air sting my frozen cheeks before sitting at the bar. I'm not tired and I focus on bringing my back as straight as it could be.

The bartender locks eyes with me and I order sake for myself and water for him. We sit in silence until the waitress brings it over and I sip it quietly, observing the extensive collection of liquor for what must be the tenth time- I have been here a lot.

"You old enough?" Nine finally asks doubtfully. I look up at him and narrow my eyes and put my lips into a slight pout. He towers over me by nine inches sitting down but my back is straight enough and his slouched enough to look like less of a difference.

"Yes," I say frostily, and down the glass before ordering another one. Nine looks like he is used to people drinking alcohol around him.

"Really?" before I can respond he adds, "Because you kind of look thirteen."

To someone who looks like a Caucasian sumo wrestler, yes. Otherwise, on my physical exam, I have the body of a ten year old.

"Want to see my ID?" I say and he nods gleefully.

I take out my wallet as the waitress brings me more sake and give him my American ID. I doubt he can read Japanese.

He looks it over and says, "Nice picture. Alexia?" He doesn't know how to pronounce Russian last names.

"My American name," I say and extract the piece of plastic from him and put it back into it's place. I start and finish the sake.

"I'm not carrying you home drunk," he says not even trying to hide his disgust.

"I'm not going to get drunk," I assure him apathetically. It's true, I'm not, my tolerance to alcohol is ridiculously high for someone of my height and weight.

"In that case, order me some too," he says.

"No, I'm not," I say as if it were the obvious thing that he is missing so royally. I can see the effects of my tone of voice on him, the slight withering in his face, eyes turning slightly sideways, and fingers moving closer together. "I don't want to carry you home drunk."

"Well I don't want you to carry me back drunk," he says.

"So in the case that you do get drunk, I get full and complete permission to leave you here, in a place where you don't know and don't know the way to get back to the hotel, and half-collapsed on the bar stool mumbling things about the Mets," I say. "Or I could call an ambulance of course."

There's a look of terror on his face, brief but slow enough to fade for anyone with the least bit attentiveness to notice.

"How do you know I'm not over 18?" he asks.

"Because you would have already ordered," I say smartly and his eyes flick down to his fingers then back up at me.

"So how old are you?" he asks.

I observe him quickly, this isn't awkward for him at all. It should be, he tried to murder me and now I'm taking me out for drinks and him for the scenery.

"Didn't you see my ID?" I say. He shrugs and squints his eyes slightly while cocking his head. "Twenty-three on the one you saw," he spits out his water, laughing. I roll my eyes. "Twenty-five on my Japanese one," he chokes even harder and I down the rest of my sake in fury. Not even Tsuko laughed that hard. "Ten on my physical exam," and we both smile at the same time.

"How did that happen?" he says, and for a moment I feel the hatred from his eyes gone, but the fire returns despite his joking expression. It's the same fire when he takes to Number Four, I'm sure neither realize it though.

"I'm 5'4 and 46 kilograms," I answer, suddenly feeling self-conscious. And he believes me, I wrap my arms over my ribs even though I know my sweatshirt doesn't show them.

"Hmm," he says and after a pause he continues, "So can you order me something very alcoholic?"

"No."

"Come on, stop being my mom," he says.

Before observing his face I ask, amazed, "Your Cepan was female?"

"Wait, what? No, wait, how did you get that?" he asks and I feel heat crawl up my cheeks and struggle to defend my impression.

"You said and I quote, 'stop being my mom' which implies that you had prior experience with having a maternal figure and according to Loric culture it would not have been your biological mom. So your Cepan would have to be female."

"What?" he asks, completely and utterly confused, and with a jolt I realize he was just using a Culturization.

"Never mind," I say hastily and down my drink without tasting it. He raises both eyebrows at me and I stare right back into his judging eyes. They are plain brown and an exception in Loric genetics. It's like all of us have to have beautiful or arresting eyes and be traffic-stopping gorgeous.

"So..." he starts awkwardly and I order another one by a point of my finger. "You had a mommy?"

I feel my fingers go numb and I manage to say, "My Cepan was female," before praying furiously for him to not say anything else and for the sake to work a little bit sooner.

I need probably twenty more glasses to get drunk.

"Was," is all he says but the look on his face confirms that he wants to go into the matter of Cepans as much as I do.

"So..." he says again, and I spend the next twenty seconds thinking that I was an idiot to take him here before ordering Nine some iced tea- his water glass is completely full.

"Seriously?" he says after he gets it. I smirk back at him.

"Someone's underage and that someone isn't me."

"How old are you really?" he asks, the fire for a second fading away.

"Nineteen," I lower my voice.

"Hm," he raises his eyes amused. I remember the look on his face the night before and wonder if hearts can stop.

I order more sake and the image of pudding thickening crosses my mind. This is boring.

He rubs his eyes and fatigue cross his face. I want somewhat badly to keep him here and make him stay awake or otherwise embarrass himself, but instead I suggest that we should leave.

I have not have nearly as much sake as I would like.

"I'm not tired," he says stubbornly after blinking several times.

"Well, we're going," I say and stand up, he stays sitting.

"Why?" he says. "I don't want to go."

"Yes you are, and because I said so," I wither my voice.

He glares at me and I see him reaching into his pocket. I cock my head and simper, "Of course," I part my lips slightly, "you can stay here all night. But I won't help you back when you need me to," I press my lips together and out slightly and stare at him with a soft "deal with it" expression. I see him bite his lip madly and stare sideways.

I pay with cash and make sure the clack of my heels are as hauntingly hollow as they can be and then I hear Nine following me out.

"Why can't I have alcohol," he whines loudly, his lip jutting out. I try to not laugh at the little-boy expression.

"Because this isn't Wall Street and I don't need to make a business deal with you," I smile slightly, staring up at him.

A cross between disgust and confusion crosses his face and I sigh inwardly, this was such a stupid idea, why did I even think about this, all I did was make myself look drunk. But I'm not drunk and he can think whatever he wants, I can't change his opinion.

I walk forward fast, drowning anything else in the sound of my heels.

He sprints and catches up within seconds.

We walk in silence and I slide out my phone and swipe the unlock code only to have him snatch it out of my hand. I shriek and lunge for it but he holds it above his head.

"Really?" I sigh, crossing my arms and narrowing my eyes.

"Payback," he smiles wickedly and widely, teeth bared in a comedic way.

I try not to paralyze him as I hear him whistling while pressing buttons on the bottom of the screen and slowly reading to out loud. I groan and roll my eyes, half paying attention to my emails. I should change the text to Japanese or Russian. Japanese. Shit, I forgot to write in Japanese and Russian today. Idiot.

His smile grows wider by the second and I resign to the hopeless situation. He laughs like he is looking at pornography.

I lunge back for my phone but he just holds it up over his head and I stare up at him annoyed.

"Give. Me. Back. My. Phone," I growl.

"Afraid?" he gloats.

"Of what," I say stubbornly. I hate him. I hate him so much. He tried to kill me. He took my phone.

"Hmph," he says and goes back to his wide smile and I see him swiping.

"OK, now you really aren't doing anything," I force my laugh to sound as not fake as possible. We are in the middle of a war and he wants to see my phone.

"Who says? You can't see my phone," he challenges.

"You don't know all my Legacies," I say and pull my upper body slightly away. What am I doing?

He pauses, looks up to the sky- is he religious?- and then hands me my phone. I have to pull it from his strong grip and I groan and look up to the sky. Why, God, why?

"Thanks for returning it in one piece and screen intact," I laugh staring back into his eyes which he rolls.

After another five minutes of walking in silence he asks a little too nonchalantly, "What are our plans?"

"I don't know what the rest of you want, but what I'm going to do is Raid the remaining bases, and the headquarters in each of the major cities- they are the centers of operations on each continent," I say immediately.

"Not kill Setrakus Ra?" he says.

I pause, I have never thought about that before. I phrase my answer carefully, "Killing him would only bring further justification to what the Mogs already think of us and will accomplish nothing but that."

"Discredit?" the way he says the word makes it sound like it is a mouthful for him.

"No," I say immediately.

"Why?" he asks dubiously and I can't believe I'm going to get into a WWII- aftermath discussion with him if I don't try hard enough not to.

"Go study history," I say instead of what I _really, really _want to say.

"Seriously?" he says and adds after a pause, "So then what?"

"I don't know," I say, annoyed, and trying to keep my frustration off my face. I should ask Tsuko. We walk in another awkward silence, this one colder than the frigid air biting. I see out of my periphery how his eyes avert to me and more than anything I wish that he would just apologize for wanting to kill me. I think about whether or not I should prompt him.

Finally, we reach the hotel and I walk up to the door, and I feel the terror in my heart again. What was it that scared me so much? It's not the first time I woke up with a man on my bed, or the first time someone wanted to kill me. I sigh and let fatigue cross my face for half a second when Nine is looking away.

I look at Nine and confirm with checks, and cross-checks, and past examples that he won't try to kill me again.

I know the morning will bring sparring and strategy discussions. They seem pretty scattered with their intentions and don''t know what they do. I want to know what the Mog knows about the bases. I wonder if he is the rogue Mog but then I switch the topic and solve algebraic equations in my head. Soon my thoughts drift to Nine and his maniacal smile and I fall asleep thinking of that. Of all things...

**/-/-/-**

**OK, I'm not sure if she should think of herself as Liliya (her Russian name) or Ki'ni'ro Sora which is her Japanese name. Liliya means lily and Ki'ni'ro Sora means golden sky (I translated them separately, them together is a completely different word).**

**Please, please review. It makes my day and don't be afraid to criticize. That said, I know this chapter was kind of boring.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Sorry it took me a long time, but it is long enough to make up for that. Yes I know anemia means shortage of red blood cells. But Nine doesn't. And yes, I am making Nine somewhat of an idiot.**

**Keep in mind that Nine has biased perception, so what he thinks is not necessarily true.**

**I am so sorry about Nine flirting with Six. I can't get that right at all. Also, I changed the story picture because I like the one currently on more. **

**Nine's rage has sort of plateaued, he doesn't care enough to be in full-on kill her now mode but not enough to love her suddenly.  
**

**I can't wait to getting back to writing fighting scenes, this is kind of boring for me. It's sparring, and Five being something of a bitch. If you want to skip to it do a page find for: **/-/-/-/-/

/-/-/-/-

**Nine**

At one point I hear the door opening and closing, and soft voices, but I stay in my bed, languidly rolling in the crisp sunlight warming my sheets, staying in between sleeping and consciousness. It feels grey, neither sleeping and dreaming, nor awake and feeling.

Then, not sure of how much time lapsed, I open my eyes. I close my eyes again and focus my hearing. No one is here, and I listen closer for the sound of Mogs. Nothing. Slowly, I start to repeat the events of last night- or was it morning?- in my head, skipping over some parts.

If Five had wanted for me to hate her any less, she failed. And only succeeded in making me more mad- although not the kind that rebounds immediately.

I stand up and pull my sweatshirt over my head and go to the bathroom. After coming out, I walk to the dining hall and find the table. Five is there, hair perfectly put into a ponytail and back straight. Memories of last night come back and I push them away and wave before going to get breakfast.

I pretend I don't hear sighs of relief.

I put some waffles onto my plate as Eight piles pancakes on, with butter.

"So what do you think about Five?" Eight asks neutrally, lowering his voice.

"She's a bitch," I respond immediately.

"Really, and why is that?" a grin toys on Eight's face and I stare down at him in disgust. Am I the only one who isn't blind?

"Because she led us into a trap and to a psychopath?" I say, what is he, diagnosed with anemia? I groan and walk to the table with waffles and butter on my plate. The rest of the food is Russian stuff and I can't pronounce the label.

Five is sitting there typing on her laptop and the rest are eating in an awkward silence. Eight and I are the last ones here. Five doesn't look up to meet my eye and I sigh inwardly in relief. Cold gazes and Nine don't match. But Six's gaze... damn...

Eight points to Five's sweatshirt and I notice the writing.

_raw, burnt or cremated?_

I can't help but laugh and Six notices it as well.

"Nice shirt," Six says, I can't believe the honesty, doesn't she remember that she put us into a net?

"Thanks, I got it in Milan," Five responds and I start gasping at the completely "cold bitch" in her voice, just the way she says Milan, whatever that is, and the way her cold voice clips. Six's face turns on the defensive. She looks at me and I mouth 'bitch.' She nods and looks a little bit happier. She's hotter when she's upset though, gorgeous wide lip jutting out.

Another five minutes of awkward silence, Five shuts her laptop, sighs, and walks over to get breakfast.

"So how did you guys sleep?" Six says, immediately relaxing with Five gone.

"The mattresses are the best," Ella says, grinning a little.

"Food not bad either," Eight says and gulfs down a pancake. He glances at me mischievously but Four doesn't. Ah well, little bro has to take a backseat someday. Might as well be now.

I swallow my entire waffle in my bite. Eight takes another pancake and it's gone within half a second.

He stands up and says casually, "I'm going to get more pancakes. I'm still kind of hungry." He glances down at me.

I stand up immediately, nearly knocking the chair back. "And I think I still want waffles. Maybe the whole plate that is still there."

Eight mouths 'you're on' and we race to the breakfast buffet. I manage to get to the plates first but the pancakes are closer than the waffles and we get back at about the same time. I swallow all of my waffles without tasting them, Six's laughter fuels me. I inhale them and get a headstart. While I shovel waffles onto my plate I notice that Eight is already sprinting back. What the heck? How did he get there so fast! He teleported! I use my enhanced speed to get back and eat it into a blur. He is still ahead of me... I will not let him beat me.

When I come back I notice Five staring at me with arched eyebrows while slowly cutting whatever she is eating. I don't let myself stop long enough to see exactly what.

Eight and I race off, this time I get my lead back and we race back, nearly knocking over each other and the food on the way.

"I don't want to know," Five says. Well no one was offering information.

"Pause,"I hear Eight say in the midst of laughter and we both lean back into our chairs laughing and holding our aching stomachs.

"You know girls don't like guys who eat enough to sustain an entire continent," Six teases biting her bottom lip.

Seven nods, looking kind of grossed out.

"Well real girls like guys who eat. A lot," I respond, leaning back into my chair, balancing on my heels. Everything is perfect, well would be perfect if Five were elsewhere. Anywhere but here.

"Guess I'm not a real girl," Six responds, and the look on her face is incredibly sexy.

"No, you are too much of a girl," I respond, mimicking her expression.

"Oh yes, you can obviously tell by my manicure which is trimmed to perfection," I smile as Six says this dryly. "And my hair, combed to perfection."

I want to pounce on Four when he says, "Where are we going to spar?" which totally ruined the chemistry we were having.

I look at Five and everyone follows my gaze. She looks up from her watermelon and thinks for a second, "There's a field like," her eyes blank for a second, "a mile back."

I see the image of her blank face over the guy- Maxus- in my head and shudder. I make a mental note to ask her about it later.

"Are we ready to go?" Ella asks, and I slightly jump in my seat in shock. It's like she wasn't there in the first place.

I shrug and I hear something metal being set down on a plate. We stand up like a hive mind or something and file out, letting Five stay in front. Better in our sights than out.

Five walks fast to our room and we wait outside expectantly, in frigid silence. I suddenly remember that I had some sort of dream after I got back with Five, but I can't grasp the memory.

She comes back wearing what I now recognize as different shoes and her coat. Five waves us back and I realize that we should have brought coats with us. Oh well, we won't die.

"Get your Chests," she orders and we roll our eyes and depart to our rooms. Six stays.

When I come back I ask, "Why didn't you get your Chest?"

"Because I don't have one," she responds flatly and with no emotion.

"What happened?" I ask before realizing that it's a stupid question.

She doesn't answer and looks away in silence. I stand awkwardly, even as the others come out.

/-/-/-/-/

We follow Five along a path and to a river. We stop before some of us plunge into the water from misplaced adreneline.

She turns around smolders her eyes a little and then jumps up to a tree branch. I don't hesitate when I run to the tree branch and use the weaving of the branches to get to the other side. I drop and she is waiting there. Everyone else follows.

At one point, her black leopard comes up and joins her. Five turns back and says something in gibberish to the leopard.

"What did you say?" Four calls to her before I can. Mistrust flames again.

"Translation is did you have a nice night," she shouts back.

I see several tree branches over her head and she ducks under them before continuing, not breaking rhythm. I start looking around. The snow is already melting but the scene looks probably nothing different from a hundred other places.

We finally get to a pretty big open field, with no melting snow, damn, and we form a circle.

Four pairs us off for sparring, seriously its like he is assuming the leader position he doesn't deserve.

Five's black leopard is with BK. Easy fight for the good guys. Five says something to her and I try hard to hear the syllables the words, "Ti znayesh shto tebe nada zdelat v ety situatsie." Mila purrs softly. Wow. Badass. Not.

BK sizes her up and I tell him, _seriously, this will not be hard._

_Cocky, _is his only response. I roll my eyes at him.

"Nine with Six," Four says before I have the chance to say it myself. I pretend to be annoyed, girls love annoyed guys.

"Me with Adam."

"Seven and Eight," Seven rolls her eyes and Eight looks a little pleased at his easy victory for sparring. I'm going to have to redo these lineups soon.

"Sarah with Five," that is well matched, both are completely lacking in actual fighting skills. And only one looks hot when fake-fighting.

"Ella with Sam."

They nod, and I get the feeling neither will be training.

Six motions to a corner of the field and we jog over there, me with my Chest under my arm. White mist puffs out from my breath, I'm not even tired.

"No Inheritance," Six says, looking sexily pumped up to fight.

I sigh heavily and toss my Chest to the edge of the trees. Out of the corner of my eye I already notice BK and the black leopard engaging.

Six moves first expertly weaving under my punch and I swivel around to meet her. We pause for a second until my instinct (fighting instinct) takes over and we start moving in a blue, neither of us seeing anything but a world of grey.

She occaisionally switches fighting style and I rapidly switch between nervous tension and a determination to beat her at what she thinks she is best. I more than match her when we plain wrestle, I'm not sure if standing or on the ground changed much.

She swipes an underhand and I deflect it and kick her in the shins, she dodges and punches my chest with her fingers, I ignore the pain, and deflect the next shot before going back at her.

It's a stalemate.

Then I see Sarah drop to the ground out of the corner of my eye and I stop and look at Five.

I feel myself falling down, my world becoming a different blur, some grass in my mouth and Six is standing over me with a huge grin on her face. Oh what would I give to make it last forever.

"I win," she says and I kick up but her foot stops me. Damn she is stronger outside of battle. And hot. My eyes linger around her midsection and she slaps my face away. Her touch lingers and I breath in and get up to my hands. I hear Four's squeaky voice off in the distance and I focus in on it. I can tell Six does as well.

"You wounded her!" I hear. I start laughing and Six does too but I see the pain on her face. Poor little Sarah wants comfort. She's hot in a conventional way, but she is a liability.

She sighs and looks up at the sky, "I know how this is going to end, but OK. Legacies or no Legacies?"

"Legacies," Four says confidently. I smirk, Five will have no chance if Four is a ball of fire.

"Outside weapons?" Five continues.

"Only if I get to use objects from my Chest," Four smirks. I remember the handle of his weird knife wrapping around his hand. If Five agrees to this, she is so dead. And by dead I mean half dead. Four is too much of a puss to finish the job.

"Fine," she cocks her head, eyes blazing with consideration. "To the death?"

Four is too shocked to respond and I speak for him, "If he were to agree?"

"I snap his neck," she says simply, with no sarcasm or anything in her voice. I think. She stares into my eyes for a few seconds before I wither under her gaze.

"Then no," Sarah says too quickly, looking at Seven. Seven shrugs a little, suddenly looking uncomfortable.

No Sarah, stop stroking her ego.

Five smirks a little then motions for us to move away while still having locked eyes with Four. Is Ella taller than her?

We move to the edge of the trees, I don't want to be on fire.

"This is gonna be easy," I whisper to Eight.

Four blazes his hands and I grin and lean into the tree. He throws a fireball at her and follows her as she walks out of the way. I see something shift in the grass. Four aims it at her foot and she flips over it before walking closer under the shadow of a tall tree.

Four lobs more fireballs at her, and I try to motion for him to go in closer and punch her in the face or something. Something blocks the fireballs and a piece of smoldering wood lies before us. Eight yelps and jumps back. Seven places her hands on the corner of my eye. Six beats me to putting up a telekinetic shield.

Something groans but I can't catch what.

Five's expression is completely blank and Four's is one of fury. He glances at Sarah, and I notice she is enjoying this.

Then a tree crashes down onto the field. I look down to see a black furry blob a few feet in front of me.

She licks her paws.

I hold my breath and Four stops moving around and scans around the field for Five. I see something forming out of... something and Five is kneeling on the fallen tree. One of her legs is out beside her and the other one bent and her arms are out as if for balance. She pulls herself up and stands with her back to us and her hands behind her back.

Four readies the fireballs.

And wood can be burned. I tell that to BK who tells that to Four, I hope.

Before he can shoot the fireballs something silver comes through the air and the next second Four is against the tree, impaled by at least a dozen small blades. Five turns around and flips backwards off of the tree and lands with her hands up.

Six immediately brings down the telekinetic shield and Sarah rips towards John who is shocked by the pool of blood to come. She murmurs something to Four and starts gently extracting the knives. Seven rushes over and I take out my staff. No one hurts Johnny on my watch.

"Wait for it," Five says with no other expression on her face. I start circling around her, she doesn't follow.

"What the hell!" Six yells. I swivel around to see Six with a stunned expression on her face. What. Is. Going. On.

"Did you seriously think my aim is that bad?" Five says and then presses her tongue to the roof of her mouth. I feel like crawling into a ball at the next look on her face.

I shrink my staff back and put it back into my sweatshirt pocket.

Four locks eyes with me and I try to communicate that while I failed last night, I will get her tonight. Five has no place among us.

Five starts walking back into the direction she came and calls back to us without turning around, "We'll continue again tomorrow."

"Discussing strategy," Four gets up on his feet, and I can literally see him fighting humiliation on his face. Hurts, being beaten by a twig because a tree happened to fall. I pat him on the back and he glares at me.

Five doesn't stop even as she says yes. Already making herself further an outcast. We follow her back.

/-/-/-/-

"Well the Mogs are allied with the US government," Six says quietly. I expect Five to say something that would show that she knows not nearly as much as she would like us to believe.

"Come on, how much danger can the United States do? It's not the super power it was anymore," Sam trails off, and small comfort comes over us. If anyone knows this stuff it would be Sam.

Out of the corner of my eye I see Five drop her face into her hand. Really? How can she possibly argue that. Or is she just arguing for the sake of arguing, like she did last night.

"Anything you want to say?" Four asks Five and I nearly celebrate at the icy hostility in his voice, but I don't want to look weird so I don't.

"Yeah, now we're just a super power with drone warfare, nuclear warheads and not a modest amount of control in the UN," she says and our heads all snap to her. Her eyes glow as if to say 'Yeah, prove me wrong because you can.'

No one speaks though. I want to say something, but I really can't think of anything, I should really have gone to school and learned something about US government...

"Still, it's not like they have that much power," Sam awkwardly improvises.

"I'm not getting into this anymore than I already have," she says with a holy virgin expression or whatever they call Jesus's mom on her face.

"Fine," Sam says. "You have any suggestions?"

"None that will fit a group of ten," she says shaking her head derogatorily.

"What do you mean by that?" Six says, I wish I said it first.

"I mean," and she doesn't say it embarrassed, "I usually do sabota- sabotage on my own. And it turns out fine."

"You couldn't have fought the room full of Mogs without us," Seven points out.

"I wasn't going to," she says. Really? She stares at us with a cynical expression. "Seriously, ever heard of Sun Tzu?"

"After you tell us, then yes," Sarah mutters and John grins.

"I'm so not explaining Sun Tzu to a bunch of..." she stops herself and I start fantasizing on what she would have said.

"Anyway, strategy time?" Eight suggests awkwardly, and I catch Seven looking at him. She finds me staring at her and her cheeks turn bright red.

No way.

Seven has a crush on Eight? Yes! Six won't have a crush on Eight now!

"Where do we have safe houses?" Four asks. Wait, how is he leading the conversation.

Five waves her hand and the map on the wall comes off. I swivel around to see if anyone is watching. A tray of something Sandor calls- called- thumbtacks float over.

"Chicago," I offer. I feel my heart start pounding as the image of my building and Lake Michigan enter my head. "Two floor of sheer awesomness."

Six rolls her eyes but Four says (yeah, little bro), "He's serious."

"Alright anyone else?"

"Does Eight have any?" I ask.

Eight looks down at his fingers and Seven hesitates before clasping his hand.

"OK never mind," I say.

"I have some," Five says eyes scanning us before flicking between looking up and down.

"Really," Sarah says skeptically.

"Apartments in New York, London, Milan, Ed- Tokyo, and I put other ones up for rent in like ten other cities."

I can't help my jaw drop. But I put it back up, there's no way they can be well designed like my apartment. And it can't be bigger, either. I smirk.

"Where are the rented apartments?" Six asks, skeptically.

"Uh, I can't even remember. Moscow, Beijing, Brazil, I'll check later."

"OK, on from safe houses, unless anyone has anything to add. Our strategy for the war?" Four says.

We sit in silence for a moment and I think about everything I did for this war.

Got into prison- never mind, I'm not thinking about that.

Killed my- I shove the thought out of my head.

Escaped the prison and gave many Mogs bad days in hell. I grin.

Went into a government base and obliterated it. Or almost obliterated it. What's the difference.

When I look up from my fingers I notice Five smirking.

"What?" I say and everyone else looks up and at her. My heart starts beating a little faster and I want to wipe that obnoxious smirk off her face.

She presses her finger to her lips and takes out her phone. Everyone stares at her confused.

"Don't talk," she says. The phone starts ringing. We all open our mouths with objections and I cover my face with my hand and fling my head back over the chair.

Someone picks up and says something in gibberish. Five responds in gibberish, and then switches to English, "So, Tsuko, hypothetical scenario: you are fighting for Earth and your planet Kolob," the person on the other end starts laughing and Five lets out laughter, covering her face with her hand before continuing, "needs to be resurrected Jesus-style." She laughs again a little but continues.

"And you are fighting a group of warmongering aliens who are bent on the destruction of Earth and all good and pure and shit like that in the world. They outnumber you million to one and have many more supplies, and big check allies, yeah stuff like that." My jaw drops at the casual speech. It's like last night is her actual personality more than once in a blue moon.

"So how would you defeat them, supposing, of course, this hypothetical scenario was real?" she finishes. "And don't say the first thing on your mind. Or the second."

They both laugh.

"Well... First I would," he starts saying this mechanically. "Number one, create a tunnel of passageways under the enemy compounds- the most important ones. Locate the weaker links and set up spy networks who know what to look for but are loyal to you and only you. Use that information to predict attacks against your side. Use past battles with that enemy to predict fighting strategy. Avoid what is strong, attack what is weak. Fake an attack onto one of their more important bases- a base that they took from you and then a short while later attack every single base simultaneously. Oh also, if there is a corrupt person high up in the chain of power, use his hunger for power and glory against him, false retreating," he says something else in gibberish. "stuff like that."

"Kay, thanks," she says, her expression suddenly looking blank, all of the previous laughter gone. Well traitors don't deserve to laugh.

They both exchange something in gibberish and she hangs up and smirks at us.

I'm the only one who stares into her eyes and she stares back, amused. Her eye color is something of a green-brown, none to exotic. Six's eyes are way prettier.

"What would be the first thing and second thing on whatever his name is mind?" Adam calls after her, a desperate and worthless attempt to get her back here.

"His name is Tsuko, and I will let you figure that out by yourself," Five tosses the statement over her shoulder as she walks away. I notice the absence of the heels.

"Wait, are you at least going to talk about yesterday?" I call after her, the rage immediately engulfing me. I ignore the image of her laughing last night.

She sighs and turns around and cocks her head at me. "He's dead, what is there to tell?"

"What happened before that and what you were thinking!" Six nearly shrieks before I can say the same thing. Two minds, same thoughts.

She sighs again. "His name is Maxus, I met him like two years ago. He hated me, I hate him, we both wanted each other dead. And then I killed him. Anything else you want to know?"

"Everything else," Seven says quietly but in a steely voice. Yes, someone is getting guts.

She rolls her eyes, "Well it was in Leningrad, and he was hunting me down with his team of spek- special soldier unit or whatever they are called." Adam widens his eyes. "Anyway, I got away the first few times, but he pretty much followed me around. After a while I learned how to manipulate him and he stopped being able to manipulate me. We fought hand-to-hand several times but we are pretty much evenly matched because we use similar fighting styles and the backdrops we were in featured absolutely nothing that either of us could use. So yeah, he hated me I hate him and then I killed him before he killed me. End of story," she gives a small shrug.

I hold my breath, waiting for more.

She points to the door and says annoyed, "Can I go now?"

"One more thing," Eight says and Five rolls her eyes and groans loudly and turns around to face him with eyebrows arched. What a typical teenager, how could anyone believe the number on her ID.

"Yes?" she says exasperated and I enjoy this thoroughly.

"Legacies," Eight says and I can't believe I forgot about that.

"What I call shadewalking, basically I melt into shadow and I can go along anywhere in that strip of shadow. What I call skinshifting, which is me changing my DNA structure which changes my appearance. I haven't experimented with it much aside from hair color, eye color, skin color, and face shape because too much can go wrong there," she doesn't want to use her Legacies? Is she an idiot?

"Oh and animal telepathy," she adds and immediately something inside of my plummets, she has the same Legacy I do. She has the same Legacy I do.

/-/-/-/-

We come back after dinner and a few hours of nothing. Meaning us sitting awkwardly and quietly. Five is crumpling the group.

Six heads to the shower with no words.

Five should not have the amount of control she has. She is a traitor, and her presence is none to bow to. She makes us too prone to whatever it is she is doing and that is a risk. Not to mention, she will betray us again.

I catch Five's eyes, and I draw blood around her neck in my mind. She holds my gaze for three seconds but then turns around. I hear shuffling and soon she takes her purse and makes her bed with a three flicks of her hand until it looks untouched. None of what was on her third of the room is there before. Five walks to the door and opens it.

"Where are you going?" I ask, smirking, but my cheeks somewhat grow hot.

"Out," she says.

"Why?" I say, slightly shaking my head with scrunched eyebrows, completely confused. Come on, I didn't do anything yet.

She cocks her head and opens her mouth and she can't look uglier. "Because I like getting sleep. And not having to wake up in the middle of the night and nearly have a heart attack."

"I wasn't going to do-"

"Hmph," she says and opens the door and goes outside, the freezing air brushing over me. She's not leaving, there's no way she is sleeping out in the cold. Come on, how would she know that I intended to kill her in her sleep? It's not like I let the Mogs I kill in their sleep know. There is know way she could have known, she's just being mean and judgmental of something she knows very little about.

I hear the door to the bathroom open and Six comes out, looking very sexy, and says, "Where are you going?"

"Working in the dining room a little bit, wi-fi doesn't work here," she rolls her eyes. I almost gasp and gag at the lying. Seamless lying.

"OK, when will you be back?" Six, notice the fact that her stuff is with her and her bed is made! She isn't staying here, she's leaving for no reason she is aware of!

"I don't know," she cocks her head up, thinking for a second, "like two hours? I have so," she exaggerates the 'so', "much work to do."

Six, no she doesn't, can't you see she is lying? Wait, why do I care so much? Just let her freeze.

"OK, fine, but we are so not waiting for you," Six waves her off and Five smirks at me a little when Six turns away and the door shuts, Five on the other side. Barely a second passes before I open the door to see where she is, but there is nothing but darkness. Just darkness.

**/-/-/-/-**

**Bonus points for I have no idea what to anyone who can guess what Tsuko was talking about. Like I said, I can't wait till I get back to business, because this stuff is kind of boring to write. Nine is kind of a boring POV to write from. From other characters, it's way better to write about him. And their obsession with Five won't last too long.**


	9. Chapter 9

**All of our hearts go out to the children and adults dead in the Connecticut school shooting and their families. For those who don't live in America and/or haven't heard of what happened: on Friday morning a person with three guns (belonging to his mother) came to an elementary school in Connecticut and fatally shot 20 children and 8 adults. **

**/-/-/-/-**

**Five**

I pretended not to be sad when we (they) decided we would be leaving for Chicago to train. It's hard to train in urban centers, and the few times I was in Chicago, it could not have impressed me less. Urban centers are better for learning how to analyze people, something the Garde couldn't care less about, and I know all too well.

But still they decided, in a vote, and I abstained, pretending that I did not know enough about the pros and cons of either situation to correctly vote. And afterwards I pretended that my smiles weren't forced (not a hard thing to do) and that I was fine with leaving. I told Mila later that day and I couldn't help repeat her words in my head even as hours passed, _And this is what you decide._

I'm overreacting.

After buying ten plane tickets to Chicago, we got through security (with a freshly-bought suitcase with all of my weapons in it) and sat in the gate with a lot of nothing as a conversation.

I find Mila with my mind eye, she is somewhere in the Midwest.

_I feel that I am out of place, _she says, alternating between Japanese and Russian forgoing sentence structure- a sign that she is annoyed.

_Because a black leopard originally from Siberia is usually so part of the norm in Midwestern America. I hope you and your cousins the chickens are having a fun time. _I hear our flight announced and the Garde, me excluded, lock eyes before standing.

I tell Mila to go to less populated areas of Illinois or the Great Lakes area, until further areas. She asks me when we are going to either Russia or Tokyo. I don't answer.

We board the plane, and it takes off for the six hour flight. I take out Master and Margarita, which I had been neglecting for about a week. I start reading it, twenty minutes per two pages, in Russian. It's a good way to annoy you to the brink of cutting yourself, considering my Russian has faded away since I had not been practicing in the slightest.

We arrive at the O'Hare airport and Nine gets three taxis for us, tells us the address- something I immediately forget. I'm in the car with Seven, Six, and Ella who are giggling onstop about something that I tried at first to catch onto, emulated, but then gave up and looked out of the window.

I still like New York more.

The taxi diver stops in front of a tall black building. I don't both looking up as Ella, Seven, and Six do, instead I open my mind eye to see the view of two tall white spires. We find Nine standing to the side of the doors with everyone else

Nine nods to the security guard and doesn't stop to talk and I look around. The lobby is too bright and too refined for my tastes, but it's fine, like a building on Wall Street.

Nine ushers us to the elevator with a dramatic sweep of his arms and I sigh before taking out my phone and put my ear buds in. Whatever Nine is giddily saying, I don't bother interpreting. When we are on the 71st floor I notice he pressed the number for 100. 100th floor?

We come in and while ignoring what Nine is saying through the power of the rock music that I abhor, I make my analysis.

The entire thing is like too many puzzle pieces smashed together in a way that did not compliment each other. Not to risque to be avant-garde but still awful. The small details were not tactfully designed either- the white couches were suede while the wall color was a crisp white in the entrance room. The kitchen's bright red cabinets did not go with the tiled flooring- wood would have been better, just not parquet. He showed us around the bedrooms, which were somewhat better because the guest bedrooms were a bed, TV, desk, thankfully matching wood.

I set down my purse, change into my sporty clothing then try to find some place with a better view to sit and read.

"Hey," I say while smiling, sliding next to Marina.

"Hey," she says back, confused. I can almost see her thinking why am I being so nice to her. Then I get it.

"What's up?" I ask, as I would have asked my best friends.

"Nothing," she says, even more confused. I have to stop myself from going into the usual pattern of telling everything that is on my mind and pretending the other person is interested. Then I see her gather strength and anticipate exactly what she says, "Why are you talking to me?"

"Why not?" I ask innocently.

"Don't you hate me?" she says, sounding brave in asking. Like I would butcher her if she said that... Well I could.

"And why would I hate you?" I know the and makes it sound predatory or sarcastic even as it leaves my lips.

"Because I'm weak, insecure, disconfident-"

"Not confident," I correct.

"Not confident," she corrects herself, reminding me of how I did the same when I was in English class getting something grammatically wrong. "not a good fighter, and only a magical nurse."

"So?" I say. "Point?"

She stalls for a second and hesitates before answering, "Well you kind of mocked me, remember that?"

I sigh heavily, only for show, "I did that, and I'm sorry if it hurt your feelings," I fight sarcasm, "so that you would go and fight, that's how the hu- brain works. Not to make you feel bad, but for you to recognize that you have a natural ability to fight," she doesn't respond and I continue. "I usually don't play the Loric strength card, but that does automatically give you a lot of strength, whether or not it carries over mentally is your choice."

I do want her to be my friend, or at least not hate me, right? Granted I couldn't care less if she hated me, but what's the point of it.

"Well I was never trained properly, my Cepan wouldn't," she says.

Now I'm genuinely curious, "Why?"

"She was," was, "a Christian nun who rejected her Loric faith. When she came back to my side, it was too late," she says, eyes hardening in defiance to me. "You? Did your Cepan train you?"

Seven is trying to bring the subject over to me, but I comply, "My Cepan wasn't in the picture," I consider whether or not to tell the rest of the truth, then decide to, it will get her to trust me, "she put me into an orphanage in Russia, and to my knowledge I haven't seen her since. And as for my battle skill, I was heavily trained by elite warrior groups in Japan," I get as vague as I can. "And by heavily, I mean heavily," I finish laughing.

"See you were trained, and now you have confidence and now you expect me to be the same, also, we were both in orphanages." Orphanages in Russia and Spain can't compare. Also, I was adopted (late).

"Now we are talking strictly in the terms of psychology of different minds. Needless to say, the way my mind works is different from yours. You speak Spanish right?" I abruptly change the topic. I don't want the topic to get to orphanages.

"Yes," she says, and I notice her Spanish accent. Her name is Marina too, and she is obviously not Eastern European.

"So if you have natural strength, why don't you use it and forget about your inadequate training. You have already proved many times that you are capable of fighting simply because of the Legacies bestowed on you," I say in Spanish. I use the English word for Legacies and inadequate, not knowing how to translate either.

"Good, but your grammar needs work," Seven says smiling. "And as for what you said, because I freeze up in battle, and I don't know what to do."

"Thinking is for people without natural strength," I lie, continuing in Spanish. I know she thinks it is towards myself that I am saying this, but I have enough natural ability to do fine without additional training.

Seven smiles a little wider at this, I wonder if I got some grammar wrong.

"So in other words I plow my way through with my natural strength, not thinking of strategy," she smiles wider.

"Seems to work for Nine," I say, the corner of my eye catching, of course, Nine.

"What are you talking about?" he calls to us.

"Architecture in Barcelona. Wanna listen in?" I respond. Seven gasps before covering giggles.

"Does the architecture involve hot girls?" he asks. I struggle to not laugh, Seven does a worse job.

"Yes their names are Mila and Bario- Baria," I respond. "Of the Gaudi family."

"Do they speak English?" he says suddenly interested. Seven covers her face with her hands. Spanish jokes.

"Very little, only what they are required to," I respond. His face falls and he shuffles away from the room.

My eyes meet Seven's and we burst into laughter in the following second.

Once we become somewhat sober she says, her face darkening, "But I don't have any Legacies good for fighting."

Of course she would ask that, and again we are back at this. I sigh inwardly, but try to remember that she wouldn't talk about this to someone else if she isn't still being defensive, "What Legacies do you have?"

"Healing, underwater breathing, and I can see in the dark," she says uncomfortably, embarrassed about her lack of powers and showing it.

Well at least she is trusting me.

I switch back to English, "Healing is amazing, which means you rarely have to worry about dealing with injuries while you are fighting. The downside," her face falls, "is that you can't build up as high of pain tolerance in the case that you can't heal yourself. But that isn't at all a likely scenario, and screaming helps a lot. As for seeing in the dark, imagine if you fought your enemies in the dark. You can see them, they can't see you. It's like fighting a blind enemy, you have one extra sight that they don't, and that is a huge advantage, especially if you are quiet. Now as for underwater breathing, that creates an automatic refuge for you." Kind of like my shade-walking Legacy.

Seven looks incredulous, like she would never have imagined before, ah yes the wonders of thinking how to put your Legacies to good use.

I hear Six's raspy voice behind me, "What are you talking about?" there is something hostile in her voice directed at me.

I decide between battles strategy and architecture, "Architecture in Barcelona, specifically Gaudi. We were just discussing the effects of the waved glass on the overall aesthetic and usefulness of the balconies in Casa Bario."

"Bario," Seven corrects my Spanish accent.

Six gasps and looks at Seven, "Wouldn't that remind you of..."

"A class field trip I had five years ago," Seven finished and both of us know what Six is getting at. I try to see things from Six's point of view.

Six gives one glance, in the style of Nine and leaves.

"Nine and Six are so perfect together," I tell Seven. She nods, getting really excited all of a sudden about the idea of a relationship between the two, and suddenly the conversation gets strangely uncomfortable, my fault.

I stand up and say as casually I can, "I'm going shopping, see you later."

"Kay, bye," she says, clearly wrapped up in her own thoughts.

So close. So close to actually having a friend that is of my own race. But oh well, I came to fight, not to be the nice queen bee- a contradiction in and of itself.

/-/-/-/-

**Five**

It's sad to ditch my old purse, nice teal leather, but I still donate to charity. The Mogs follow that scent to whoever buys it after, but they have never killed the person owning it. I buy a new one that is cranberry colored snakeskin and of a different style. I carefully write the amount it cost into my notebook.

Then I go over to Saks (can't believe they have it in _Chicago. _It's Saks Fifth Avenue) and buy underwear, socks, bras, perfume, makeup, and all the clothing I would need-want- until my next shopping spree. I come back wearing a new pair of bright red wedges that tie around my heels and feet, white jeans, and a metallic gold silk tank top that forms around my skin. And of course, new sunglasses, red, and new earrings, diamond dangling ones with three hoops in gold, and a new bracelet, also red.

/-/-/-/-

**Four**

"Come on Four let's spar," I hear a voice in my dreams. I shake myself out of sleep, and struggle to open my eyes. It's 10 AM, Sarah is still sleeping soundly. I quietly get up and throw a pair of sweatpants on.

I glower at Nine.

"Come on make that frown upside down, if you want to be any use in this war, you should start training," he hits a raw nerve when he says this, and I remember him going immediately to Setrakus Ra, then the way Five defeated me too easily. I stare at him determined but as soon as he grins back I wipe the expression off.

He leads me into the Lecture Hall, passing Six and Seven talking animatedly about something.

"Where are you going," Six asks, Nine swoons a little. I enjoy it a little too much.

"Training, gonna kick Johnny's ass," he says casually, moving his body in a flirtatious way. I roll my eyes as does Six.

"Continue with your makeup session," Six smirks back at us.

"I will t_otally, _and like save some for you," Nine bats his eyelashes, and Six laughs, he laughs too completely misinterpreting the meaning of Six's laughter. He's so bad with girls, and it reflects: I have a girlfriend and he doesn't.

We walk down to the study, Nine casts one glance down to the computer, hovers his hands over it before pulling it away and opening it up to the Lecture Hall. He stored his Chest here overnight, and he takes out his healing stone and sets it off to the side. His game face comes to light, and I steady myself into the position Six taught me.

/-/-/-/-

**Five**

I feel like a beauty queen walking down the streets of Chicago, and hoping that I would be able to do the same in New York.

Ten minutes later, I realize that I'm heading south. Oh my god I'm lost. I open my mind eye, and yes I'm heading sotuh. My cheeks turn red and I turn around, looking around like a confused tourist. Okay, Lake Michigan is north? Right? Or is it West in some places? I go some streets to the left and back to the right, feeling increasingly annoyed as I do so. Not only is it against my New York mindset of never going back and forth, but also the streets aren't in a grid. What kind of idiot builds a city that people can't navigate around?

I take out my phone, and dial the number Nine gave us before, and then click the hang up button before it can connect to his house. I'm not telling him that I got lost while I'm shopping. _Liliya, being stupid... _Well that's normal for me.

"Ugh," I groan turning around, and looking up at the sky.

_God, would be a nice time to help me out..._

/-/-/-/-

**Four**

He punches me playfully, and I block and kick him back. He ducks and gives me a right hook, which I deflect but don't see the oncoming barrage of kicks and punches. i struggle to block them, but most of them I can't so they hit me. I try to not skid backwards. I duck away and come up behind him, hoping to surprise me but he is already turned around and doing some sort of karate chop.

The fight does not last long.

Nine is more violent and deadly than usual, yet he is still playing around with me. Why can't I start my morning with someone I like? Sarah or Sam?

/-/-/-/-

**Five**

I can't believe I actually got lost. I never get lost. Never. I'm _never_ wrong. Well I was thinking about fash... no I never get lost.

Tears pool into my eyes, then I start laughing at how stupid I am being at getting upset over being lost. That means more shopping, doesn't it. I smile, and thank God for the sunglasses on my eyes.

Well I splurge more in the first mall I can find, buying the most expensive things I can, and trying to organize everything into the three giant shopping bags I'm carrying. I also buy plastic holders for the bags to not rip under the weight of too much money spent.

I think of all of the gorgeous jewelry I bought and start looking for a place to eat.

The worry of being lost fades, and Ienjoy the fact that I had a nice morning/afternoon doing what I do best: shopping and giving my credit card quite the workout.

Then I go eat lunch, trying to not drag the bags with me. I sit down and eat my sandwich, coffee, and macaroons for dessert. Who knew that there were good macaroons outside of France and 23rd near 6th avenue?

Liliya, too much of a girl.

/-/-/-/-

**Four**

"My Cepan built this training room for five years and I didn't even know," Nine says, laughing exhausted before handing the healing stone to me.

"Shouldn't we get Seven?" I ask, not wanting nostalgic Nine. I press the healing stone to my foot, feeling the ligaments kneed themselves back together.

"Nah, anyway there used to be this controller thing where he could send machines and drones and stuff that you do _not _want hitting you," he says laughing. I look around for it, but I see nothing. I wince when I put the healing stone to my wrist, feeling the bones groaning as they are forcibly moved.

"It was like, a brutal workout with projectiles going at me, but I wanted more of it. That's how I discovered my antigravity Legacy," he says, smiling before his face suddenly turns sad.

Before I can stop myself I ask, "What happened after?"

He looks at me, "Stupid question."

He stands up and leaves and I feel stupid for even continuing the conversation without him wanting to.

I go to find Sam.

/-/-/-/-

**Five**

At least I can cover over the atrocity of my room now with the vase, the cashmere blanket, the new painting, the new scarves, the new lamp etc. My shoulders start aching, and tears start to pool again before I think of to call a taxi.

_Idiot, Liliya. Idiot_. I sit down laughing into the taxi and tell the driver the address, apparently John Hancock Tower is as famous in Chicago as New York by Gehry is in New York. Impressive, somewhat.

I exit, the taxi, my shoulders not getting enough rest even with the relatively long drive, and they sink under the weight of my splurges. At least I have enough strength for all of this, most people don't. I'm complaining over nothing.

When I come in, I realize I left without a key, and I sigh while telling the security guard where I'm going. He phones up to Nine's apartment, and then I realize exactly what is going to happen, what is subsequently played out.

"Passcode?" the security guard asks me, trying not to roll his eyes.

"I have no idea, try saving 15% on Geico," I say and he repeats that into the phone, hiding smiles.

"No," he replies.

I decide to not play this out, Nine is sadistic.

"Never mind," I say, and take out my phone and call his house.

He replies in a horrible French accent.

"Not funny, Nine," I say, completely mindful of the fact I said his actual number.

"What?" he asks innocently. I hear someone laughing behind him.

I'm not going to be a topic for amusement.

"You know, I can go to any city of my choice," I make my tone lighter with shadow undertones, "in the country of my choice, on the continent of my choice, in the hemisphere of my choice." I end tightly.

"You can't take a joke," he laughs into the phone, and I hear stifled laughter at the end of it.

"I could, but I'm not a six year old," I say condescendingly.

"Fine, I'll call the security guard," Nine groans, and I roll my eyes.

He hangs up and moments later the security guards let me in to the elevators. I can't help but hang my head back in relief.

He created drama over nothing. Sadist.

/-/-/-/-

**Eight**

I come over to the elevator, still in my pajama pants, still half asleep.

Five comes out carrying three huge shopping bags. Really? Three? Damn, that girl can overspend.

"What?" she says, I can feel her burning gaze through her sunglasses. Nine laughs.

"Some of us like to look like we came from the planet Earth," she says. No response, "Or 1%-ers."

She walks away, and my gaze follows her, amused. Then I put my telekinesis under her shopping bags and pretend that I don't see her sigh in relief.

When I look back at Seven, she's staring at me with eyes that sort of creep me out.

I break the stare after only a second of being in it, and awkwardly walk away and collapse back into my bed. 3 PM my ass. It's 2 AM in India. Anything to get away from the image of Seven's glance...

/-/-/-/-

**Five**

Nine doesn't force us to train, so I spend about three hours reorganizing my room, moving the bed, moving the desk, putting my new scarves around the decorative pillows and put them on the window seat. I put up the new painting I bought and the vase on the desk.

Then I change, and appreciate the fact that it looks much less uglier, but still bad.

Nine calls us across the thing in the wall, the voice in the wall, to dinner and I sigh and force myself off of my bed and off of my incredibly soft new cashmere blanket. I bought too much cashmere, there are another three cashmere sweaters on my bed one in pale pink another in midnight blue and the last in

/-/-/-/-

**Six**

"Most un-human moment, go," Eight says in between bites of pizza. I try to think of one, then remember the airplane thing. I lock eyes with Sarah and she mouths "this will be fun." I nod back.

John starts, "First Legacy arriving in the middle of the school day."

"Was that the asthma thing?" Sarah says shocked. What is she talking about? What asthma thing? John doesn't have asthma.

"Yeah," John admits guiltily.

"Jerk," Sarah says playfully, punching his shoulder.

"Five?" he asks.

She raises her eyebrows before pausing and then saying, "When my thirty-nine year old friend had to explain to me first what Justin Bieber is then what One Direction is."

"Seriously?" Sam says, completely not believing it. Who's Justin Bieber, and how does Five know so much about people then we do?

"Yeah," she says laughing before cutting-cutting her pizza. "Six?"

She scans the table quickly until I start talking. Wow, she has no idea that I'm Six.

"Ummm... When I was in prison," I say, rethinking the airplane one.

This produces no laughter, only awkward glances. Shit.

"Being Loric," Seven says quickly. Eight laughs but then looks away from Seven's face. Awww. Seven told me of her crush on Eight earlier, and how he looked like he was returning it as well. I laughed and gossiped with her, it must be a natural girl thing, but reminded her to stay focused on fighting. If only Nine would do the same.

"Eh... Getting an unreal time in a track meet," Eight says. "Nine?"

"Pretending that I was home schooled," he laughs uncomfortably, and I don't wonder why.

Sam and I go back to talking about something we will forget later, Five goes back to her phone, and Seven and Ella go back to whispering girl stuff probably. After a while, I realize we should be doing something with our time.

"We should discuss what we will do next," since the last meeting was boycotted by Five.

"Go to Paradise," Nine says immediately. I feel Sarah stiffen against me, and I hold onto her hand. She grips it tightly, and I feel with telekinesis that her other hand is against John's, her expression placid.

"Why?" Eight asks confused.

"For my dad's stuff," Sam speaks up, face cutely vulnerable.

"Paradise where?" Five says, suddenly a little more, annoyingly, interested.

"Ohio," Sarah responds, Five raises her eyes a little.

"So what's the story?" Eight says.

"Well my dad was your human contact and he looked for aliens since, about seven years ago the Mogs abducted him. We found some information there before the Mogs found us," Sam explains, flinching slightly. I want so badly to come over there and hug him, like he did to me not a month ago.

"Alright, to Paradise we go," Eight says. "Should we vote?"

"Who says no," John says with authority.

No one says anything, Five even looks up from her phone glancing around, her eyes lingering on me before flicking away.

It's decided, we are going to Paradise. Then we are going to find Malcolm and Sam can avenge his dad.

/-/-/-/-

**Most of the next chapter is written since I originally wrote it for this chapter. Then I realize that if I continue making chapters around 5,000 words then this is going to end at chapter 20 as opposed to the 30 the books have.**

**Anyway, please review, it only takes three seconds of your time!**

******The macaroon place that Five briefly says is real (and AMAZING), it's in Manhattan between 6th and 7th I think on 23rd.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Short one. Like I said, I'm not doing like four chapters in one anymore, but the plus side is I will update sooner. Like every two days (hopefully) sooner. And I got winter vacation coming up (YES!) so that's a bunch of free time + annoying my parents.**

**And again, our hearts go out to the children who had their futures ripped away from them and their families and the six adults on the scene who were murdered as well. Let's hope that politicians in Washington will do whatever they can that is in their power to prevent this nightmare from ever happening again.**

/-/-/-/-

**Five**

I fall into the bed and wrap the comforter over me. My eyes close, and at one point they open to realize that I had not been sleeping, only not thinking for less than three minutes. I switch positions, and once that fails I move over to the chair which only succeeds in giving me a cramp.

I give up, pull my new light pink sweatshirt over my head and slide several shuriken under it for protection. I change my mind, and take the hexagonal ones instead and bring throwing spikes as well, sliding them into my shorts. Then, I change my mind and slide into my new pair of green-blue jeans and put twenty dollar bill and my phone. I go out of my room, quietly shutting the door, and go to where Nine says all of the spare keys are. I take one, and then slide under the door in shadow.

I surface on the streets, then find Lake Michigan, letting my fingers become shadow as an extra sense. I find it easily enough and start walking around it, calculating how much time it will take me to walk around the whole lake. Too much, I will have to double back somewhere. One day, I will go around the whole lake though.

I walk up closer to the beach, and bend down to let the water skim my fingers. I concentrate, breath in, close my eyes, and feel the water freeze just around my fingers. My breathing grows shallow and I let the small chunk of ice float back into the lake and start walking, trying to ease the thundering pulse in my head from using a Legacy that has only just poked it's head through the ice.

/-/-/-/-

**Six**

Even though we are a hundred stories above the ground, I feel that I can hear the cars and the noise of the night. I turn over and stand up, throw my pants on and leave my room, accidentally banging the door. I wait outside of Sam's door for a few seconds, straining my ears to see if he is awake. He isn't, there is soft (adorable) snoring inside

I walk there, only to see Nine sitting on the railing. I open the door and knock softly.

"Can I join?" I ask, failing to keep hostility out of my voice.

"Sure," he says, looking at me fake (I hope fake) lasciviously. I resist the urge to toss him over the edge.

I walk over to the black railing and swing one leg then the other over it. I loop my ankles around the railing for balance, suddenly I regret encouraging Nine.

"So, what's up," I say neutrally, trying to plot my way out.

"Wanna spar?" he says immediately.

I smile, Nine is easy, "Rematch?" Might get me tired a little.

"Last time wasn't even a real fight," he says.

"Not on the balcony though," I say, realizing I just agreed. Late-night sparring sessions. At least Four and I did it during the day. I raise my eyebrows, "So where are we sparring?"

"You'll see," he says mysteriously and I roll my eyes.

He opens the door, leads me to a study, and oh my god. This is his training place! This giant room and not a game room transformed into a tiny training space! I'm immediately jealous and in awe at the size and the quality, and oh god...

"Yeah, it's awesome," Nine says with no trace of modesty in his voice.

He moves into position and I follow.

We start sparring again, and it literally is a never-ending process. He strikes, I counteract, I strike back again and he blocks it and sends another blow and I let it land, immediately regretting it. I stagger backwards, the wind knocked out and in shock at the sheer amount of strength.

"Come on you are _way _to easy," he gloats and my cheeks burn. I straighten myself.

"I was holding back," I respond.

"So was I," he says and we lock eyes and go at it again, me at the same force and Nine much faster, stronger, and deadly.

I struggle to keep up, even with all of the training that Katarina gave me.

I let my mind go into Shadow mode, and do exactly what Kat taught me, eventually we get back on even grounds.

At one point Nine walks a few yards away from me and I capitalize on this time, catching my breath. His eyes gleam, he isn't even tired, the jerk.

"Pause," he says, in the same tone of voice that Eight had yesterday morning.

Nine looks at me again and I catch his eyes full of pain. What now? He has a completely cushy apartment, and he didn't lose to me.

"I never realized before now that he designed this place for all of us," he says quietly, eyes a shower of vulnerability. He looks up to the ceiling, throat strained.

"Smart of him," I say, not wanting to commit to either past or present tense, but surprised at this sudden change.

"What happened to your Cepan?" he asks, and my fingers go cold. I look at his face and decide to answer.

"She died, right in front of me," I say quietly, staring down.

"I'm sorry," Nine says, and I'm stunned by the sudden sensitivity. "Was that when you were in prison?"

"Yeah," I say, pressing my back against the wall.

"Do you mind me asking how you got caught?" he says, and I almost gape at him.

"No," I say laughing a little before coming back to concentrating my gaze on my fingers, "It was after the blog message that Two sent, we replied and then we left as soon as we could. We stopped at a place in Texas and there was a Mog there. Well the people there helped us get away, we didn't know they placed a tracker on our car though. We hid my chest in the middle of America, and then went to upstate New York. I was playing soccer with some school team. I came back and there were the Mogs," I start speaking louder against my will, "Well they drove us to West Virginia and there they tortured her. I said everything I could that wouldn't give away the other Garde. I also told them I was Eight," Nine laughs for a second, "then they killed her."

Neither of us say anything for a long minute. I'm angry at Nine for making me say all of this, but then again I did say it.

Then to my surprise, he puts his arm around my shoulder. All of my tears spent before, tears replaced with a thirst for vengeance, I just lean against his shoulder.

"Your Cepan is dead too?" the sad reality of everything hits me. None of this is fair. None of this death and carnage and the Mogs attacking us for no reason is fair. They are monsters, and it's not fair that we have to deal with this. They took the lives of every Loric but us. Did they expect us to not fight for vengeance?

I feel Nine nod, chin only centimeters above my own.

"What happened?" I ask quietly. For the first time I notice only a few of the lights are on in the giant room.

"He also died. In front of me," he says. "Mogs killed him."

There's a small hiccup in his voice when he says that.

"I couldn't fucking do anything."

I take his hand in mine, and squeeze it. Well he may have had something traumatic in his past, but he goes about revenge too seriously. Sam doesn't do that.

We stay like that for a long time, and I can't imagine anything more comforting outside of Katarina being here too. Eventually he suggests that we go back to bed, tomorrow we are training, then the day after going "on a road trip."

/-/-/-/-

**Five**

I move my hand up and down, feeling the waves while not touching them, they move in sync with my fingers, as they heave up and down just a little bit out of the ordinary. The stars above provide little light, but the crescent moon does, shimmering in broken lines across the ripples of the waves, back and forth across the sand.

I'm walking slowly, one step with each wave as it recedes, and I know I won't make it back in time for when Nine told us to wake up. At one point I turn back, after walking an amount that I don't know. The hand previously moving the water slips into shadow, and the other one leaves the shadow and bends the water, slightly, just little waves only slightly increased, their frequency only a little more. Half in shadow, half in water.

I don't think about where I will eat breakfast, Nine's house will not be an option, I just walk.

All alone in the night.

/-/-/-/-

**Home sick, so I got this done. Next chapter will be up soon I hope, and same with the one-shot series.**

**Thanks for the reviews! Please keep them coming!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Screw keeping organized ships, this is way more fun. As a side note: I didn't actually want to write out the drama so Five recounted it for you.  
**

**Kebbi: thanks for the review, and oh trust me there is more to just her abandoning her. Five hasn't even gotten to her halfway point of her development (some of it is before the start of this).  
**

**/-/-/-/-  
**

**Seven**

All of a sudden Five appears in front of me, I shriek and skid backwards.

"Sorry," she says, sounding only a little apologetic before smiling a little.

"Who wants what for breakfast," I hear Nine behind me.

I turn around and notice the bags under his eyes.

"What do you have?" I ask.

"Bagels, that French thing, and yogurt," he responds, looking a little unhappy.

"Bagel," Eight says and I repeat him.

"Five?" he asks.

Five almost looks surprised, "I already had breakfast."

"Where? Oh and speaking of where, where were was the traitor the night before the last?"

"For breakfast, nice cafe overlooking the lake. And before that, visiting my lover," Five says. Eight gapes and Five turns around to face him and winks. Oh my god, did she and him have sex! How could she!

Nine nods and go away, eyes not decodable.

"What..?" Eight stammers. I roll my eyes, and prepare my glare.

"He tried to kill me like three nights ago, so two nights ago I went to a motel to sleep. Back when we were in Canada? My lover is in Japan, I would not have been able to get there and back in time," Five gloats. My jaw drops as she saunters away, plugging her earbuds in.

"Lover?" I manage to stammer long after she is out of my sight.

Nine brings the bagels long after my jaw has set itself back to normal, and Eight and I have long since finished laughing. He watches us eat the bagels, and the whole thing turns into an awkward affair. When we finish he snatches the napkins from us and mysteriously leads us to where we will train. I'm too tired to pester him.

"And this is the Lecture Hall," he says with grandiose. It's a giant white marble room.

"How is this is a Lecture Hall?" I ask.

"I have no idea," he says, winking, and goes over to pick up a gun from the floor and shoots a target. I cover my ears and wince.

"Do you mind?" Eight asks.

"When we start training," Nine has a shark grin.

"Alright the plan," he says and motions for us to gather around, it's only instinct that we follow. "We train all of today, spend tomorrow on the road, then the day after invade Sam's dad's secret lab or something."

"We are not wasting any more time," a voice says. I turn around and see Sam's eyes flaring at Nine.

"What do you mean," Nine says, sizing him up.

"We are going to Paradise then we are finding my dad," I lock eyes with Six who immediately jumps to his defense.

"We don't need training. We need to start fighting for Lorien. We need to find Sam's dad because he actually has information that can help us win

"Information doesn't win wars," Nine scoffs.

"Really? Then what does?" I hear Five ask. I feel a little sorry for Nine, it's hard to argue with someone who knows the perfect response for everything and can counter anything.

"Firepower," Nine says, certain of his answer. I'm not sure if I agree with him.

"Really?" she says, before he can answer she adds, "Give me one historical example where that is true, and information has no vital play in it."

"World War II, the two nuclear bombs," he says.

"World War II, the decoding of the German code. World War II, the manipulation of spies to get the Germans to believe that Allied powers would invade Calais not Normandy," Five counters, moving a little forward. Six groans and holds her head back. "Want me to continue?"

"No," he says, pouting. Six breaths a sigh of relief and I lock eyes with her, holding back laughter.

"We are leaving for Paradise and doing whatever Sam thinks is best," Five says. Sam mouths a thank you to her. She doesn't acknowledge it.

"We are training, what if there will be Mogs there," Nine says this as a rhetorical question,

"Doubting your abilities?" Four smirks.

"How about everyone who wants to go, goes and everyone who does't stays and does whatever they want," Six proposes this laughing.

"Fine," Nine says and storms out of the Lecture Hall.

"What a mature adult," Five says dryly.

"Alright, our plan," Four immediately says after her but he rolls his eyes at her.

The unspoken words after are, clearly, now that Nine is gone.

So we formulate a plan, heavy help from Five, creating a defense an offense, a diversion, and an information team. Nine can join anything but the information team. Five told us that she knows Paradise and specifically that place is heavily guarded. There would be one person (Five) heading into the main command center near Paradise to monitor the situation and help with whatever she can.

The plan, after written on a whiteboard, repeated and memorized, is understood by everyone, per Five's request. Apparently there is more to her than just betraying us, or whatever

Sam looks delighted and Six looks delighted as well, touching his hand. They stand to talk outside, and I want to hear what they are saying but I don't want to invade their privacy.

I chat with Eight, and swoon inwardly about how at ease he talks about Indian culture and history.

/-/-/-/-

**Five**

There's a text and I expect it to be Millicent, she has been strangely silent recently.

_Go to Paradise, and you will pay._

I smirk at the text then delete it, someone is trying to be in Pretty Little Liars, and horribly failing at it. My plans never go wrong.

I go to my room, open up my laptop, and catch up on everything and nothing on the wide, wide world of "corrupted" internet, while going through the plan, then possible fighting methods in my head, flicks of the wrist for different weapons, and reviewing which side of the shuriken hits best where.

/-/-/-/-

**Six**

I find Nine in the computer room, staring at it with glazed eyes. I come in and sit down, propping my head against the back of my wrists.

"Want me to tell you the plan," I say, specifically wanting to annoy him. He rolls his eyes and groans, and lazily mouses through other slides, what I realize are cameras watching people in the city. I lean forward, incredulous and also trying to do some sightseeing. I'm not exactly well-traveled.

"I wonder what you think about Five," I say dryly.

"I hate her," he says shortly. I'm not sure if I disagree or not, but she clearly does not have malevolent intent. Granted, there is about nothing we know about her except for she lived in an orphanage in Russia and is somewhat sort of kind of Japanese...

"OK, let's stop souring the conversation with the mention of Five," I say, smirking.

He laughs, then slumps back into his chair, slipping through the phrases too quickly to notice anything. I sit here bored, but I don't want to leave because that would be rude.

"We finally have all of the Garde alive here," I say, allowing a small smile, in the presence of Nine. I wish I was with Sam or Marina so I could squeal and jump like I imagine normal girls do.

I start having a conversation with Ella in my head. Then I notice the shadows under Nine's eyes.

"Did you sleep?" I ask, concerned.

"Couldn't," Nine admits while looking guilty.

"Did I keep you up," I tease.

"Yeah, yeah," he pauses then says, "What's the plan."

I explain it to him, having been forced to memorize it against my will. I'm more of a spur of the moment type of person. Five is obviously not.

"Wait so did your Cepan die in prison with you?" I ask, forgetting to a be gentle with the question and regretting it.

He snorts and responds, "Yeah," not tearing his eyes away from the screen.

"So one of the only Loric left died under your watch and then you couldn't escape without the help of Four?" I fake-gape, half-joking. When he looks at me, I realize he took it as anything but a joke and immediately feel awful inside.

"Too bad you couldn't bare the sight of your poor precious Cepan all beaten so you had to put all of us in danger like those chickens that the humans talk about. Your vow of silence must have been _so_ fun," he says coldly, looking at me for a second.

I gasp and grip the armchair for a split second. It's not the words, but its the intention that I should have done something differently. He has no right, no right, to say ANYTHING about my choices. He has no idea what it is like to be me and have your childhood stolen from you from people who could not care less. Not all of us had a childhood being a rich city boy with an idyllic childhood. Some of us actually had a hard life.

I don't regret it when I slap him and storm out of the room, slamming the door.

I don't hear it when Seven calls after me, when I pass one of the countless _gaudy _living rooms.

/-/-/-/-

**Eight****  
**

For the countless time, I head into Nine's bedroom, holding my head back. I'm seriously considering just calling him and Six and telling them that being single and not loving anyone is way better. The way the two blew it up, they might as well have been married.

I open the door to the Lecture Hall, immediately changing into a deaf creature so I won't hear the countless gun blasts. Then I loudly change back into a human, and Nine drops his gun before crossing his arms at me. I notice his black eye, but know I can't convince Marina to come within a hundred yard radius of him.

"I talked to Six," I try, all other methods tried and failed.

"Don't care," Nine says and I know that he does in fact care.

"She said," I decide to lie, "That she regrets saying what she did. Whatever it is she said."

"Just get out," he says shortly, "and tell Four to stop coming every five minutes and let me shoot the guns in peace."

I sigh, yet again, and give up completely.

He is behaving immaturely, and I hate to admit so is Six and Seven and everyone bothering to get involved. Well I'm not being an idiot, might as well be outside of the fray laughing. If only, someone else

/-/-/-/-

**Five**

By the end of the day, Ella caught me up on everything.

Apparently, Six made a joke about Nine's Cepan, Nine got mad and made fun of her Cepan, and then they both stormed off to different floors (Nine to where the guns are, Six to her bedroom, she must be lonely without a girl's favorite pastime- makeup. Not that she is getting any of mine). Then a bunch of drama and a phony controversy was created about who said what, who's going to apologize, who is going to be the peacemaker, why are the two not talking, how does this impact their feelings...

Because when you hurt their feelings, you hurt the Loric destiny.

And when you hurt the Loric destiny, you hurt the truth

And when that happens, Tinkerbell's light goes out and she dies.

And I thought I was a teenager, here in my bedroom trying on which color combination works best, which boots I will take, new music on my iPod, fangirling over my appearance in the mirrors with the new lipstick, and seeing what material best goes with jeans (everything but more jeans).

Oh and Nine has a black eye and Six doesn't regret it. Poor him, his heart broken, his shoulder blown open.

Ella had asked me what I thought and what she should tell Nine and Six and I answered, "Please continue, this is hilarious." Nine must be having a bad day.

By the end of the day, the car line-ups were changed completely, Seven and Four were on Nine and Six lookout, respectively, and the entire thing ended up with me going with Eight to eat Chinese on our own, the rest caught up with:

A) Peacemaking

B) Lookout Duty

or

C) "Accidentally" wandering into a room that either were in and trying to instill common sense

The whole thing is very entertaining and delightful.

We order, me chicken and broccoli, him noodle soup. If Seven needed confirmation we were not on a date, the noodle soup was more than enough. So I take a picture of it when it arrives, and then another picture of him slurping a noodle.

"For Seven?" he asks.

"Yep," I respond.

"So in other words we are not on a date," he confirms.

"Not in the slightest way," I respond mirthlessly.

Literally the only guy on the planet who you can have this dialogue with, without it being insanely awkward.

"So," he says, and raises his eyebrows. "What's your opinion?"

"Wondering when they will get married," I say.

He laughs, "Wanna bet?"

"Alright I bet heads which means even and you are then odd which is tails," I offer, taking out a coin.

"Wait what?"

"Even describes the number of years as does odd," I explain. "We flip ten times."

He nods and I drop the coin, moving my telekinesis to push it over to heads. Then the coin is in standstill. We lock eyes, mortified, then drop the coin, before frantically looking if anyone notice a coin hanging in midair.

After a few minutes I say, "Everyone is staring at us. Oh my god, they think we're dating."

He looks fake-terrified.

"Break up with me," I whisper maliciously.

"What?" he asks, holding his hands up in confusion, voice exceeding that.

"Just do it," I hiss.

"Alright..." he raises his voice a fraction, "You are so needy all of the time, you can't go three minutes without a phone call from me saying how gorgeous, skinny, fashion-conscious, and short you are."

I press my hand to my heart and draw my upper body back, "Did you just call me short. And anyway, I'm not the one who glorifies my ego by all of those brain-damaging football games. Those really lowered your IQ."

"How dare you!" he bounces in his seat, narrowing his eyes. "I...I..."

"You what," I say deathly quiet, the giggles start bubbling upwards. I gulp them down.

"I want to..." he says, and he fake-can't continue his sentence.

"Want to go to college? So not an option," I say, making a show of rolling my eyes.

"I am so smarter than you," he mimics my first response body language.

"How can you say that, I have an all 5- A+ average in schoo-" I can't keep down the giggles now.

I start laughing in the middle of my response, then Eight starts laughing to, and I can't stop laughing to finish delivering it.

"I can't do it when I'm not mad," I say in between giggles.

He calms down and so do I, "How about I make fun of your Cepan, or whatever Six did and Nine did."

"Yeah that. Go ahead."

"Umm..." I raise my eyebrows at him, "I just realized I know nothing about your Cepan."

I wait.

"Uh, yo Cepan so fat when she wears yellow, helicopters mistake her for a landing pad."

I start laughing again, trying to cover up my food-filled mouth.

"Yo Cepan so stupid, when she was drowning I asked if she wanted a lifesaver, she asked cherry or grape."

I continue laughing, and he can barely force out the next one, "Yo Cepano so fat, when I told her to touch her toes she asked 'what are those?'"

We can't even finish the food, and just wait until the laughs disappear.

"Motto that describes you," Eight says after a brief period of silence.

"Oh this is so classic Garde dinner," I say. He nods while smiling and I think. "To err is human, to forgive is against company policy."

He laughs and chokes a little on the noodle and I laugh with him.

"Live forever or die trying," he says and we laugh together, even though that was my motto until my shoulder blew open, although the two were barely connected.

The waiter comes over awkwardly and I compose another break up scene in my head, "Check?"

"Yes," I say. He brings it over and I hand him my credit card while saying to Eight, "Don't even think about paying."

"Didn't bring money," he says and I laugh, chest hurting so much from all of that.

We leave and find the building by looking up into the spring Chicago night. It's nice hear in spring. But the Reservoir must look gorgeous now, my heart aches for New York.

Despite everything, I still think about tomorrow and Paradise and then the text.

_Go to Paradise and you will pay._

/-/-/-/-

**Who said I need to obey the laws of Love at First Sight? This is way funner, Five not caring less about romance. Enjoy the fluff, because I love writing it. Especially Five being condescending. **


	12. Chapter 12

**MUST READ: I don't care what the Search for Sam says, whatever the information given is I will incorporate it to the degree I feel is good for my story. Also, I read that Lore is putting in a twist in the 4th book. This will most likely involve either Five or Setrakus Ra. Considering how Lore has handled the prior twists... I will incorporate however much I want to of that twist. Which means this story will lose it's completely canon compliant status.  
**

**Anyway: the song is You Belong to the City by Glenn Frey. Much foreshadowing (some obvious some not) here... Let's see who can spot them.  
**

**/-/-/-/-  
**

**Five**

When I wake up, I check my phone again, and check every single text from the unknown number.

_You were warned._

_When will you learn?  
_

_If only you would have heeded our warnings, catastrophe would have been avoided._

And so on, so forth.

After we came back, Eight told me about his experience with the government being the center of all evil. I'm sure the texts are being sent by them, who knew the government has texting. I delete all of the texts while laughing at the horrible failure of trying to scare me.

I pack up for Paradise, not shoving the thought of the texts out of my head, it would be stupid to be cocky about this with the texts are.

/-/-/-/-

**Seven**

It's hilarious watching Nine and Six skillfully avoid looking at each other, standing as far away from each other. They pointedly stare away from each other all of the time and rolling their eyes whenever the other person's name is mentioned.

My decision to bow out of this drama was apparently a good one, this is way more fun on the outside, as Eight said. I tell myself that I am being sadistic, Five confirms it with laughter. I rub the stone out of her Chest that allows us to communicate telepathically without the intervention of Ella.

_The maturity is so apparent, _Five says into my head. I badly hide laughter against my will, Nine glares at me. Whether or not I like it, I really have to acknowledge that Five is not out to get me. If she is, I am schizophrenic.

"I'm driving one of the cars, my choice of which one," he says. "Who out of, Seven, Five, Sam, Sarah, and the other person can drive"

Five leans against my back, covering her face with my back, and I roll my eyes at her. Six rolls her eyes and looks at me, I try to emulate her "not at all annoyed, this is pathetic" face.

Nine stares at us four- ignoring Six thoroughly- expectantly. I wish he wouldn't be that much of an idiot, he really was as Six said it "a dick."

"Wait a second, I'm still laughing from that last comment," Five laughs from behind me. We wait, Eight hiding laughter.

"I can drive," Sam says.

"So can I," Sarah adds.

"I have a legal driver license," Five says, in a smart tone of voice.

Eight nods and shrugs, "Who's the best driver?"

"How are we supposed to decide this?" Six asks.

"I can't believe we are..." Five trails off then adds, "I've driven in Beijing and not gotten into a crash."

"She's driving," Sarah says and Sam nods, looking impressed. What's so important about driving in Beijing?

God, Five is Earth-ized, more human than all of us (Garde).

"Five choose a car," Nine says, the leads the people in his car to an SUV.

Five looks at the assortment of cars and stares at the blue BMW convertible longingly.

"Please?" she asks us.

"Will it fit five people?" Sam asks doubtfully.

"Yes," Five puts her hands together in a begging pose.

"I can't believe we are wasting time on this," Six groans and rolls her eyes up to the cement ceiling.

Five squeals and jumps up and down once before running to the front seat and coming

"Coming yet!" Nine yells from his car, before honking.

"So mature," Six says.

At least she acknowledges his existence.

Why is he continuing this? Six is ready to compromise.

**/-/-/-/-  
**

**Four**

"Are you going to whine about Six the whole ride," I ask, keeping my hand partially outside of the window.

"I don't want to talk about it," Nine says, and runs a yellow light. I try to lock eyes with him but he doesn't comply.

"You two should just make up," Ella says. Nine rolls his eyes.

"Or make out," Eight says and I laugh despite myself. I lean back in my seat and stretch my legs

Nine grips the wheel hard and I wish Sarah was driving instead, this may just end in a car accident.

I lean back in my seat and download just about every mainstream game on Nine's spare iPad.

Moments of relaxation before Paradise.

/-/-/-/-

**Five**

"Alright, 80's music, what teenage girls fangirl over, actual music, actual old music, modern classical music, or rock?" I ask. I pray that they won't choose the second option.

Six groans and Sam says to shuffle all of them.

I do, and of course I skip the first three (Justin Bieber and One Direction- why did I even buy them).

While the music plays, I'm not sure why, but my thought process goes to why I am even fighting for Lorien.

There's enough motivation for me- Cepan tossing me into an orphanage without second thought- to make me not like the Loric, and I don't accept that all Mogs are the center of all evil. I don't fight for revenge either. If I did, I would have hunted down my Cepan as soon as I learned how to snap a neck.

But I also don't accept that every race is completely horrible and not worth life because of the actions of few. I can't be like that about Earth politics and not in my own war. Although the chance of Lorien resurrecting Jesus-style is very slim and the probability against that happening is astronomical, none of that is true for Earth.

What allegiance do I owe to Earth though? Not enough to guarantee that. Shinobe aren't exactly a representation of the human race. Humans (Loric as well) prize honor and integrity over dirty methods. Although they do follow Sun Tzu, case in point: Vietnam War, but not too much in recent wars, with the exclusion of drone warfare. I make a note to call Tsuko later asking him about what he thinks about drone warfare since I don't know what to think of it myself.

I could join the Mogs, Nine certainly thinks I already did. I would be brilliant, my strategy, their numbers and technology. And of course, less chance of death. It's much easier to coordinate those who don't care about honor either, making effective and efficient plans with the Garde is borderline impossible. I don't care too much about Lorien turning to dust, since I don't know enough to make a judgment. Less chance of death... Just those words are intoxicating.

Thinking about this, betraying the Garde, isn't scary but intoxicating.

In the end I stop my internal laughter and seduction with the idea by telling myself that it must be nature to side with "your people" and there isn't enough for me to side with the Mogs.

My favorite song comes on, and I can't help but keep rhythm with my shoulders.

_Still don't know where you're goin'  
_

_You're still just a face in the crowd  
_

_You were belong in the city._

_You belong in the night  
_

_Living in a river of darkness  
_

/-/-/-/-

**Nine**

I notice the flashing lights of police sirens in the mirror, "Hey is that the police over there?"

I hear Eight craning his neck back.

We aren't on a highway. There are little cars but us in this road, Five's car got separated from us somewhere on the highway.

I turn again, onto an even emptier, the sound of three police cars

"What the hell are you doing!" Four shouts, over the noise.

"They're following us!" I manage to say back, before the care careens sideways under my hands.

"Get back onto the road!" Eight yells, I quickly make a U turn.

"That's not going back!" Ella screams.

The cars follow us, one red-blue light after another.

They knew we were coming to Paradise.

/-/-/-/-

**Five**

"Do you really have a lover?" Seven asks dubiously . I can't even suppress my laughter.

"Ex-lover," I correct, for some reason I don't feel anything sad or something when I say that.

"Ah," Six says, and goes back to playing something with either Sarah or Seven in the back.

I realize I'm the only one without a name that begins with an S, unless Sofia is counted.

The gas comes close to empty so I pull over to stop on the highway, Nine's Porsche Cayenne not in sight.

I call Nine's car to tell him that we are stopping to get gas, I reach the answering machine and leave the message.

I wait inside where it does not smell like gas.

Someone is knocking on the window and I roll it down to see a policemen, one man with dreadlocks, the other woman.

From the government. Well, if they think they know who I am, they haven't met a liar like me.

"Driver license, please?" the woman asks.

"Why?" I ask with as much teenage attitude as I can make.

"Routine," the man says and I shrug and hand him the one that matches my current face (American).

The woman looks worried to someplace and I see police sirens by following her gaze. They disappear soon enough and I sigh to not look suspicious.

"So noisy," I sigh, slightly glaring at them. They nod, distracted.

"Where are you going?" she asks and I look confused at the sudden inquiry.

"To Ohio," I say with matter-of-fact in my voice. Sarah curses under her breath, Sam is still sleeping.

"What are you going to do there?" Dreadlocks says suspiciously. If I were anyone else outside of the Garde, I would be insanely confused.

"Campaigning for Obama for America," I say proudly.

"Romney!" Sarah calls from the back.

I go along with this, "I said Obama, and we agreed on Obama."

"Apologize then," Sarah says crossing her arms. Six and Seven look equally confused and worried.

"Okay," I hang my head back in (fake) annoyance. The police officer raises an eyebrow. "I'm sorry I called you fat"

The police looks back and forth between our death glares and say, "Thank you for your time," and leave.

As soon as they get out of sight, Sarah and I burst out laughing. Might as well make fun out of war.

We come back out to the highway, and call Nine to ask him where he is.

/-/-/-/-

**Nine**

I scamper to the back of the car, just touching the car, brings burns to my hands. I open the back of the car. Our Chests aren't there. Four, Adamus and Ella are detained and one of them unconscious, Eight an elephant, giving away our identities. I try not to scream at him for being an idiot.

"These are the Garde," I hear, and find my staff, wrap my hands over it and brain someone I can't see.

Then I feel handcuffs snapped over my wrists by someone else, then the electricity arcs through me.

I shout out in pain, my staff slipping away, not able to find Four or Eight or anyone.

It's the government, definitely them.

I fall forward and meet the unforgivable earth, already unconscious as they drag us away.

They separated us.

/-/-/-/-

**Five**

I press the hang-up button again sighing.

"Can't reach them," I say, hanging my head back.

"We know that," Six says dryly.

I try calling Nine's number again and this time leave a message, "Nine, pick up already." I sigh, then add, "If it's about Six she said she's sorry."

"Did not!" Six shrieks from the back.

"Wait, shut up!" I hiss.

"So, pick up the phone, we are getting worried."

"No we aren't!" Six manages to add before I hang up. I decide not to call again.

We ride down the roads, I manage to trace the paths with my mind eye. Then it abruptly stops, as does my instinct.

I see the car in soot and I pull over to the side.

"Why did we stop?" Sam mumbles, finally waking up.

"Look," I say and open the door to get out of the car.

My heart stops.

Six jumps out of the car without even opening the door and Seven quickly follows. Sarah and Sam join us as we stare at the car on its hood.

I notice something silver off to the side and walk over to it, bending down.

It's Nine's staff. Everyone else crowds around, and, with silence, realizes the same thing. I grab a stick with my head, keeping the sharper end at ready.

When I look around, it's immediately apparent that the government was here. They were captured and we are separated, we have to manage the plan on our own.

"It's not a drone," I confirm, easily.

"Hmph," Six manages to squeak out.

The stick I grabbed with my telekinesis goes over with my direction to the staff, and it immediately fizzles and burns.

"Anyone have a water bottle?" I ask. Six tosses me one, looking confused.

I dip the staff into the water, the electricity arcing. Then I carefully manipulate the bottle over to the trashcan to the side of the road, praying that no one will touch the water.

The staff comes into my hand, cold and damp, but not conducting electricity.

"Well," I say, opening and closing it before drawing myself up to full height.

"They're gone," Sarah says, her voice hiccuping. When I turn around I see her leaning against Six, tears coming down her face.

She will have to toughen up, and soon.

I try to meet Seven's eyes but she stares down the road, thinking hard.

I can't help but feel something like pride.

"What are we doing now?" Seven asks, focused, emotionless.

"We go to Paradise. I'm pretty sure they knew the old car lineups and aimed to get Sam out of the equation, separate us and keep the way inside away from the inside. But we changed the order, so Sam is with us, the non-captured vehicle-"

"You don't have to make everything crystal clear, we get it," Six says, and I realize that I was clarifying things too much.

"We are going to Paradise, and we are getting whatever they don't want us to get to," I confirm. I remember the texts. "They want us to come after the Garde, they know we don't want to be separated. So we are not complying with them, we are finding out whatever they want to keep us away from."

"No, we are going after them," Seven says, and she just realized that Ella is in that car as well. Admirable, if anything.

"We are not leaving them behind," Six backs her up.

"They can handle themselves, we are not getting captured ourselves. We are going to go to Paradise, then we will find them," Eight says and gives a small smile to me. I cock my head then back at him.

"Done," Seven sighs as she says this.

Six nods and Sam does too, half excited but the other half thinking of Four.

I can't even imagine what is going through their heads, they knew each other for longer, Six and Four and Sam for quite a long time. Out of all of them, I only like Eight really,

Small is the best at infiltration.

We get back in the car and head to Paradise.

They can handle themselves, we are not going after them.

/-/-/-/-

**I'm thinking of starting another fanfiction: a Swan Lake AU, only five chapters long. I'm not sure when I will update Shadows Fall- when I get another idea or someone gives me a good prompt :)**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N Well the Search for Sam only screwed this over partially. Which I will fix (and would have unknowningly before) by the end of this book, but obviously not in this chapter. Can someone tell me what Santa Monica had anything to do with it? I remember seeing that in the description.**

**/-/-/-**

**Nine**

They hold us in five cages in a long car.

Someone comes in with a white lab coat on and a syringe. I immediately sink into the wall and then comes swinging at them, punching them hard in the face. They crumple backwards and I leave the cell, head pounding. I see the other four cells, and find the driver.

Immediately, as soon as I open the door, I feel a long needle descend into my arm.

I collapse forward_, _unconscious.

When I surface, my head pounds, and the road grumbles under me. I stand up and sit on the wall._  
_

I focus on breathing heavily, my head growing faint. My ears start hearing everything and in another endless group of minutes.

"When will we be killing them?"

"Not yet, they will lead us to the others," a voice I can barely tell as female sounds.

Somewhere in the back of my head I register that they are expecting Six to come here. With Seven and Sam and Five and Sarah.

"And then we will kill them."

"Yes. Only a side mission of the war."

It vaguely infuriates me that I am only a side mission. When I break out and snap every single one of their bones, they will regret saying that.

The sedative works again and I fall forward hard.

I'm not sure why, but I think about Five, the morning before, smirking as she says "with my lover," and then Six.

/-/-/-

**Five**

There are two separate groups, one with no doubt heading with the government to a prison or to the Mogs or both. The other is us, and we are heading to Paradise to find what it is they are determined to keep us from.

I know there is the possibility that they want us to lead them to that as well, that they don't know how to get to it.

Sam told us about what he and Four were very quickly able to observe, and he concluded that we did need to go back. And then he accused me of not caring at all.

"You're right, I don't. I'm a Russian socialist remember?" I responded staring straight at Sarah, hoping she realizes I'm capitalizing on a cliche. She realizes it, miffed by my not giving it second thought.

"So who's ready to campaign for Obama?" I say, glancing into the mirror. Seven manages a weak smile.

We continue driving down the road, it's only noon. I can't let my mind eye wander to wherever they are, too dangerous while driving. I did that before, got into a car crash and was in a coma for two days. Thank God for health insurance.

Also, they don't know about that Legacy. I'm not sure why I haven't told them, but I can't now with my precarious position within the Garde.

Ah, when you dig yourself into a lie. There's that burning feeling on your cheeks and shortness of breath and then there is the thrill.

"There it is," Sarah says pointing to a sign I would have missed. Damn, I never almost miss stuff.

I pull in to the drive

"Think of a human name," I say after deciding myself on just Alexia, I don't want to give my Japanese form away by using Rie. Japanese in Ohio. "Oh and check my purse for makeup, make your eyebrows darker and thicker or something, and Sam give yourself a beard."

I can't help but watch as they follow my orders, to fazed out to do anything else.

It's funny.

The car parks in a general parking lot, I leave some makeup and other stuff behind so it looks less suspicious.

"So what's the plan?"

/-/-/-/-

**Ella**

I try changing my age, nothing works. I try again, focusing on nothing but the feeling of changing just that, the chronological coming out.

My attempt to contact the other Garde fails as well. So I just have conversations in my head, the tears streaking down my face silently.

I'm completely useless.

_We need to find some way to get out._

_Where's Adamus?  
_

_Well we can't contact him through this.  
_

_He's a Mog traitor, they will take him  
_

_We need to escape and help him  
_

_Something hurts, I can't tell what.  
_

_Deal with it._

The last comment is in Nine's voice, I have to smile when I think it.

_Are you going to admit that your argument with Six is your fault?_

_No, because it isn't.  
_

_I'm eleven and I realize that.  
_

_Exactly, proving my point.  
_

By the end I realize that Adamus was with us. He hasn't told us everything, but he said there is much more to what he told us. What if... And

I roll over, whatever they gave me numbing everything.

I don't dare touching the cage wall, there is a buzzing noise. The middle of the floor is under me

The tune to Phantom of the Opera starts repeating itself in my head, a movie I once watched with Crayton.

I don't want to be a nuisance, I just want Marina back. I don't want to be captured.

Isn't being captured part of war?

I don't want to be part of a war.

Not when it comes to this.

But I have to.

/-/-/-

**Six**

The first thing that comes to mind is to scout.

"I'll be back," I say before turning invisible. Five tells me to wait. I groan and wait for some kind of smart-ass remark about scouting or why to not scout.

"You stake out the house and some of the town, I'll check out the other areas."

I breath a tiny sigh of relief and set down the sidewalk that I know well from studying a map of Paradise well.

The school passes by, construction cranes and other building supplies next to it,

I wonder how Five is not exhausted from five and a half hours of driving, and not shaken by anything. Then I remember how she was in the base, and for the first time I appreciate just how hard that could have been. Since we just followed her around, as she made it look easy, we didn't exactly know what she was doing or the difficulty.

I travel further around the town, April evening shadows cast by the sunset and lamps. I wonder which one Five is in, but conclude that I won't be able to find her.

It's eating me alive, not going after them immediately. We should, but we also should fulfill Malcolm's information. Which we should be doing later, with the other Garde. We owe the first to Sam.

And that is also what matters.

There are cops, obvious and undercover, all around. And three cop cars next to where Sam has the entrance. I walk by the swing set, turning visible for a brief second, catching my breath.

Exactly where John and Sarah were, several months before. I jog away from there and come back

"Well they knew we were going to come here. There were really only two options for us, one is we go and rescue the other group. The other would be to come here. Clever of them, actually. Anyway, this leaves two options. We go and rescue them and then come back with a fuller team. Or we sneak in now. Someone needs to distract them, I'm making this up on the spot. And Six takes others invisible. Sam needs to be with the group coming in. We do not show that we are coming in or it is us or that we are doing anything at all or are here. So let's say Six with Sam and Seven. Me and Sarah distract. We'll come up with something.

"Got it?"


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N I found out that Book four is going to be called Return of Lorien. (By goodreads) Seriously? Does that mean it is the last book in the series? Or does that mean that all of the Garde will meet up or something? I don't get it...**

**Yes I realize Ella is going to make generalizations. As a disclaimer, I do not believe in what she says (and don't assume that just because I write a character believing in something that I believe in it too)**

**Seven**

Five waves her hand, for us to follow, slinking behind the trees. I pause every few seconds and look back at Six who is thoroughly enjoying making Five's fluid walking into her version of trying to get around guards: awkward and jaunty, stopping to dive and roll.

"Quietly!" Five hisses, silencing our giggles for mere seconds.

We smother our laughter with our hands. Sam glares at us and Six mouths sorry at him, he forces out a smile.

We pass by a lamp, skin briefly illuminated, breath catching.

"What are you doing out here?" I hear a rough voice. I turn around, briefly feeling the crisp yellow light hitting against my eyes.

"N-nothing," Sarah stammers.

"It's passed curfew," he says, pressing his fingers against Sarah's arm. Shock roots in me from head to toe, immobilizing me.

It's a cop, police. Police, government. I hold my breath, praying to a god that never listened to release her, something that I can't do.

"I-I'll be going home now," slight hiccup exposing little.

"Hey weren'tcha at the prison?" the cop asks. At that moment, I feel the warmth of Six's body next to me leave and at the next second the cop is on the ground unconcious.

"You okay?" Six asks to Sarah and I rush up to her and press my fingers against

"Fine," her lips tighten to a white line, squeezed in an attempt to block the pain.

I release my fingers and the icy tingling fades away.

"What did I say about not being in light?" Five sighs looking at Sarah. My cheeks grow red, her icy stare leaving Sarah's face and slipping onto mine, staring straight into my eyes, sending shivers to my core.

"Sorry," Sarah gasps quietly.

"Hey, lay off of her," Six defends, glad she could do it before I could find my voice.

"She's had a hard enough several hours," I continue, staring at Five before realizing exactly what I said.

Think, Seven.

"Thanks," Sarah says sarcastically, and I'm left with a gnawing feeling at my stomach, her disdainful eyes at me. Sam looks down. I stare at Six, but immediately look away from that expression. Five stares at me, amused.

Little comfort do the trees give me, when I bend them to block the light, and do everything that Five told us to do.

**Ella**

Everything comes rushing back to me the moment I get tossed into the cell, roughly, no Seven to touch her soft fingers to the bruises travelling along my body.

Papa is gone. Seven is gone. Six is gone. Eight is somewhere not near me. Why couldn't I do more? Why didn't I get out of the car when I had the chance?

The prison cell echoes with the sound of me lying down.

I'm only eleven years old, this should not be my life. Why does it have to be? Why does Papa have to be gone now? I'm still hoping he will come back, he will I know he will, he always did.

I start making a mental list of everything relevant to now. Papa isn't coming back now.

_The Charm is broken._

_They will kill us._

_Why haven't they already?_

_The rest probably are not here._

_They want the rest to come after us._

_They could be, what if they are, how can I warn them?_

I try again to contact them through telekinesis, but the disappointment of failure, complete failure, washes over me and stops more of an effort.

_I can't do that. My only Legacy, the only useful thing about me I can't use._

_I want to get out. How?_

_I want to get the others out too. At least not be a total waste of space._

When I open my eyes, I catch a tiny little space, blacker than the rest of the cell.

I stand up, shaky at first but planting my feet to gain firmness, carrying my closer to that part. I strain my eyes, barely making out the tiny hole.

It's a vent.

I squeal in delight, then reprimand myself to stay silent, anyone can come by. And I don't know how much time I have.

My hand moves along the borders, where there is a tiny difference, seeing how big it is.

Then I open it up, prying the little bolts of it off with fingernails, quietly extracting the metal off, and laying it down on the floor, double sure that it won't clack.

I stick my head inside, sudden fresh air tingling my nose.

_Wait I shouldn't go in yet. I don't know if it's okay down there._

I sit down on top of the thing that was covering it and wait for the piece of round bread, hard as a puck to appear in my cell along with the food I don't eat.

**Seven**

Night falls soon enough, and we reach Sam's house, Five perfectly content with separating us for complicated loops at points, sending me into the town to buy coffee for her, something I don't dare protest.

It works, though, not one of the many cops we have seen actually looks at us.

So far no Mogs.

"That's the entrance," Sam points to the well.

"How are we supposed to get in?" Sarah whispers half-frantically. I look at Six.

"Distract them," she points to the trees.

I make out the shapes of Mogs.

Oh God, they are here too.

My night-vision makes out more and more of them, all hiding in the shadows at the opposite end of what is called the backyard. Sam muffles a shriek. I catch Five's glare at him.

"My mom is in there," he whispers, mouth moving, but barely any sound coming out.

"She will be fine," Five says with an authority no one can challenge. The words come Sam and me.

She stares at it for a while, motioning for Six to not move.

"We aren't all going together," she turns back to look at us.

**Five**

I stare into the mirror of water, moonlight breaking with tiny ripples caressing the surface, seeing both self-imposed images. Black-dyed purple-streaked hair, finally the startle wore off, brown eyes looking black in the pale moonlight, and a face that would not be characterized as anything. And underneath that, a cleverness and canniness too slippery to be human reflected in soulless black holes, but too in between good and evil to not be.

This war is a well-written narrative of good and evil, with lines drawn completely, with the fluke that one of the supposed good guys ended up not like the others of her kind.

I value that part of me, which in a sense is all of me. No one with the intentions of honor and truth can win wars in real life.

I turn around to face them, eager to see the looks on their faces at my next announcement.

"We need to find out why the government is allied with the Mogs," I say. Everyone looks at me shocked, I press my back against the bush, seeing red berries dangling from a tree. "I'm not going into Malcolm's place with you."

_No, don't eat the poisonous berries!_

_Shut up, Philik!_

_But he is eating the poisonous berries!_

_I don't care, let him die!_

_But... but!_

_Shut up._

And later...

_No, Artyom, don't eat the poisonous berries!_

_How did you find us?_

_I followed the 'no, don't eat the poisonous berries.'_

_So not hiding with them anymore._

I rip myself from the memory, regretting leaving the cherished moments of smiling desperation from playing hide and seek, the coy smile playing on my lips.

"We are _not _separating," Six says adamantly. "You caused us to separate in the first place, don't do it anymore."

"Actually technically, we were all separated because of the charm, and then the plan was originally Nine's and then Sam pushed for it to happen sooner, and then you backed him up then I backed both of you. So it's-"

"We get the point," Six interrupts, and I consider continuing to prove her wrong but think better of it. Not enough time.

"I'm curious to know why the US government allied itself with the Mogs, I know why the Mogs would with them, but I doubt naivete is the reason on the other side of the equation. So I either go alone, or one of you comes with me. Then me or we will come

"We need to do this and then get back to them as soon as possible!" Sam;s voice rises a little and I shush him.

"What we need to do is find out what your father knows, and find out why the USA is allied with the Mogs," I repeat, slowly, and annoyed.

"That will take extra time!" Six complains. "In that time, they could get killed!"

Meh.

"It's more important to get Eight and the other Garde," Seven agrees, eyes blazing with fire. If this were one of my manipulative schemes, I would be proud, but since it is not I am annoyed.

"Look," I say. "We aren't going to win this if we fight blindly." I don't care if they have no idea what I mean. "We are finding out why the US allied with the Mogs and there is no discussion about that. I can go alone or someone can come with me."

"We are more powerful together," Six reluctantly volunteers.

Oh well, Seven and Six don't want to be separated, but it's cruel to have Sarah and Sam leave their home.

And I am so not going alone. Just not.

"Six or Seven?" I ask.

"Can I go?" Sarah volunteers, voice squeaking. I cock my eyebrows up, situation suddenly amusing, pictures of Sarah and improvised combat clashing running through my mind.

"Sure," I say. "Meanwhile, you three," my finger drags between Six and Sam and Seven, "if you don't do the obvious option, during daylight of course, I am going to murder one of you."

"What obvious option?" Sam asks, terrified.

Six slaps her head, and I smile, pressing my back even straighter. I can't believe she did not get this. Is she really that stupid? "Invisibility.

**A/N- Sorry I haven't updated in a while. And if this was reaaally boring. I've sort of been writing the ending. Well, Five's ending, not so much the rest of the characters. I'll admit it, I like writing Five's character and her storyline way more than any of the other characters. Especially the ending.**

**I want to get to the other parts of the story, like the Loric cave, and that will be next.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Does anyone else imagine Richard Armitage in the Hobbit (Thorin) looking like Nine? Like without the beard and looking younger by about 30 years?**

**And I don't have an excuse. Except for my 93 average on my tests on this quarter. Devil Face.**

/-/-

**Ella**

There is a knocking sound, too loud to be nice, and the food comes in. I hide a laughter as I find the piece of bread. I spend time giggling options of what to carve in with my nail, hunger dissipating with the thoughts of what words to choose, so many decisions.

Okay, Ella calm down. I giggle again.

Seriously, come down.

I take the bread, turning it over, before lifting the knife, fairly blunt, pressing it to what I think is the radius, turning it sideways before peeling off the skin, flaking off like brittle pieces.

In it I carve "record place and send back." What I'm eleven, not brain-dead, unlike what Nine prefers to think.

Carefully flexing my wrists over the vent, in it the bread, I send it down as hard as I can. It bounces straight back, hitting my hand.

The echoing metallic sound does not sound hollow.

So there is a wall in front.

I send it back down, completely straight, counting the seconds it takes for the metal to sound.

Then I take back the bread and lie down onto my stomach, facing the opposite end of the wall. I count how many arm lengths it takes me to crawl from one end to another, then send the ball down from one end to another, counting seconds.

It is roughly 10 feet from my entrance to the vent to the wall straight in front of it.

I giggle again, cheeks hurting from supressed laughter.

There is another piece of bread, and I take it carving the same message.

I'm careful to aim my wrist, slightly to the right, when I send it down, it bounces, but does not come back, and bounces again, still to the right. Which means there is something to the right.

Fear striking, I quickly take the vent door and put it back in its place, sitting in paralyzing fear of someone discovering my antics, the same paralyzing fear that took over when climbing to find Marina's Chest, while wishing I had my own.

Nothing comes in the seeming hours I wait. I open the vent door, then crawl inside, taking the bread with me. I find the bread at a dead stop to the right of the first hallway. I take it then move myself back into the first hallway.

I send both bread balls in opposite directions, as hard as I can, one after the other. The first I send right, it hits soon and rolls back to me. I continue making the mental map, just as I did in the orphanage, just as Crayton had taught me.

A smile grows.

The second ball of bread takes longer to bang and then come back. Both hallways are longer than the first one. I focus on the vent hallway to the right, as it is shorter, and probably leads to the prison cell next to me. Which could be open, but not yet.

I send a ball down, aimed to the right. It bounces and does not come back, giving away the hallway extending from there.

I grin widely in growing anticipation, and the eager feeling of my plan working.

_My plan is WORKING! _

I send another ball out, this time to the left, and it reveals another hallway.

I edge myself down the vent, as quietly as I can, and retrieve both pucks of bread. I peer down, both are equally dark. No wait, one is lighter the one to my right.

I continue there, as quietly as I can.

When I reach what is obviously vent, I start to make sense of what is going on.

I gape, covering my mouth.

A sigh of relief escapes and my plan has started to work.

/-/-/-

**Five**

"They will not risk using the base at West Virginia. My guess is that they will be at a government headquarters, possibly waiting for us and the Mogs.

"Except we aren't coming freely into their hands. Which means if you screw up

"What happens if you screw up," the snot challenges.

I turn to look at her, adopting my usual focused look. "I never screw up."

Silence reigns.

I only ever messed up once, and it did not impact me at all.

Eventually, I tell her to take the lead, and I slip a hand into shadow, suddenly feeling every tiny nook and cranny, ever curve of the earth and water and animals and plants.

At one point, I think that I really should not step on a the dirt-rock ball but my foot goes there, and rolls sideways, consecutive pops emitting from someplace, forcing me to the ground.

I wince briefly, unsure about what.

I use my hands to push myself straight. My hands are dirty, a little, and scraped too, tiny trails of red stinging. Moreover is the pounding headache that comes from being forced out of shadow.

Love you too, Legacy.

I limp forwards slightly, sounds of pops echoing. My foot forces itself forward fully as does the other. Sarah turns around.

"I can walk on my hands, if anything is wrong," I smirk, resisting the urge to clutch my right ankle.

"You sound and look like Nine," she smiles.

"Perish the thought. No seriously, want to see?" I cock my head, eyes widening in a daredevil way.

"I believe you," she says throwing her hands up.

I tip forward, completely balanced, right leg going up first, quickly descending into a numb pain like dry ice. My hands spread out and I balance perfectly, body straights, knees and ankles pressed together. Something is stopping me from poining

Come on. My ankle can move. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. Just move it.

Liliya, do it.

Sarah doesn't see me slightly lagging behind. I feel something tear, roll my eyes at my imagination then walk after her, ignoring the pain my mind is creating. Imagination. If you don't have it, borrow someone else's.

"Imagine if that happened to me," Sarah says, smiling after a few moments of walking in silence.

"John would _freak _at how I'm not keeping you safe and shit. Actually he would freak that you even went with me," I reply.

"Yeah he would."

Really? I'm right?

"How far are we?" she asks, abrupt change in conversation not unfounded.

I step forward, resisting the urge to bring myself to the ground and clutch my ankle, just to ease a little bit of the throbbing.

It's nothing.

"We are almost at a road," I respond coolly, then make it my mission to match her in steps and walk in front of her.

"Where are we going exactly?" she finally has the nerve to ask.

"First New York, then DC," I say.

/-/-/-

**Adamus**

There is a thump somewhere, and I look around.

"What was that?" no one answers the Scarface.

It's a thump from the venting system.

/-/-/-

**Six**

"Let's go," I whisper

"I'm trying to contact Ella," Seven mumbles.

I don't think about what to respond, "Keep trying."

I take their hands, enjoying the feeling of Sam's baby soft hand in my own and turn them and me invisible. We continue down the yard, in glaring daylight, before dropping into the well.

Sam turns on a flashlight.

"That's the giant body," Sam says. "That's where we got the tablet. No, over there. I should have brought skin sampling."

"Nerd," I whisper smirking. Seven laughs quietly.

We continue down the hallway in sort of a shock.

There's a door, covered in what I can only describe as grey light. There is sort of a drawing to it, it doesn't feel good but not bad either, an ethereal feeling pulling me to the door, keeping my eyes in a trance.

We start towards it, Sam pulling us.

A horrible naked feeling suddenly crawls over me and when I look down, I'm there. It takes me a second to realize that I'm visible.

"There they are," I hear, immediately turning around. Sam and Seven shield themselves behind me.

A Mog squad. I rip the weapon out of the main dude's hands, and level it at two people, forcing one in front of the other before shooting it. Flames erupt, killing them.

"Let's go!" I shout, and wave for them to follow me, and force the unimportant stuff lying around to block the entrance.

They thought they could beat me. Fat chance.

I can't help but flashing back a huge smile before tossing their sorry asses to hell.

"How do we get in!" Sam yells, I'm still turning around, prowess looking for more Mogs. I can tell Sam is eager to come in to whatever his father has.

"Do something!"

"We need luck!"

"I don't believe in luck," Seven says, I imagine her crossing her arms, and sure enough she is.

"Here take this," I say to them, still looking for more Mogs and still wondering in fear how they turned me visible, the horrible naked feeling taking a second act. I toss them the Mog cannon and crack my knuckles.

Seven catches it, the weight bringing her to the side. Sparks fly from somewhere.

The door opens.

"You were saying?" we can't help but smile.

It's a huge grey room, there is nothing in it.

The echoes of the door shutting sound throughout the room, then slowly the grey walls form into vague colors. It really is huge, depth many hundred yards. Colors blossom, individual and random splatterings.

I squint, then focus from afar. A gasp emerges, it's our Loric symbols, our colors are making up Loric symbols.

The colors fully emerge, like a picture coming to life, grey surface turning to bright colors, contrasting in shadows and light each created by nothing, luminescence contrasted by us.

A black haired girl stairs back at my shocked expression, on the wall but alive, smirking but grey eyes wary. It's me.

I turn around, doing a 360 of the room. These are all pictures of us, making up our Loric symbols.

This is a Loric Cave.

/-/-

**I wrote the next chapter a while back, initially planning it for Book Six. So yeah, next chapter will be up soon :D**


	16. Chapter 16

**Thank you so much for the reviews! I literally screamed and jumped up and down from giddiness from them, you guys are amazing! And sorry I had midterms so those took a lot of my time, I swear this won't happen again until another heavy testing week.**

**Major foreshadowing coming up.**

* * *

**Six**

Collective gasps emerge, including me, the expanse of the room is huge, and faces and scenes everywhere. I turn around a full circle, trying to see everything at once, and swallow it.

"What is this?" Sam breaths.

"You didn't see it last time?" I ask, my own breath still faint.

"I never knew this was here," Sam responds.

"This room is two thousand years old," Marina says. I glance at her shocked.

"How did you know that?" I ask.

"I don't know, it just came to me," I stare at Marina strangely. Later, I sternly tell myself.

"Each picture makes up a Loric symbol," I say.

"Our Loric symbols," Seven says quietly. She walks towards one of the walls, second to the left from the doorway. "This one's mine."

My eyes find the pictures of me smirking, and I jog up to there.

I look at the next pictures, some of me fighting, scenes I recognize. There is me, sort of a blue light and I gasp, that is me escaping the Mog base. And another picture, Katarina's wounds surreal. I swallow hard, somehow the picture makes it look beautiful and poetic. I move onto the next picture, before counting 13 orbs with pictures inside of them. One of me smirking, the main orb, several of me fighting, inconsequential, and Kat.

I remember clumsily drawing my own symbol, over and over, experimenting different colors, and slightly different shapes, never one feeling quite right. Staring at this, there is that feeling of right, even if I had not drawn this.

The background is a storm, it fits my Legacy I suppose.

The last circle is set in a field of grass, I'm lying on my stomach, facing the real me, and there is blood trickling down my face, and a glazed look in my eyes. That never happened. Why is it here? Something scares me about this, but I can't place what, creating a hollowed feeling.

It's the future. Whoever did this did not have a hold on time. Well duh, whoever did this obviously did not do this in the past few months. This would have taken years. Painstaking years, whoever did this must have spent years laboring over the details.

Then it hits me.

I'm lying on the grass _bloody._

That could mean I'm-

"This is Loric!" I hear Seven exclaim, breaking me from my gaze.

"What's Loric?" Sam asks.

"The writing!"

"What writing?" I ask, scanning my drawings, intentionally avoiding that last circle.

"Above!" Seven motions up, above the pictures.

When I look up I notice writing, but I can't understand it.

"It's Loric," she says.

"Now how do you know that?"

"I remember," she says. I walk over to Marina's wall, finally forcing myself to tear my eyes away from the glazed look that cannot- should not- be mine.

"Wait no, I can sort of understand it," I move closer to her, then look closer to the words. Aquae vita. Aqua sounds, well it is water.

"What the hell? I don't remember any Loric," I whisper, the paintings on Seven's wall losing their importance as I start to look at the other words, Sam comes rushing over.

"It's Latin," he says, standing with a gape across his face, mirroring us.

"It's Loric," I say.

"Come on, I learned Latin for like a year in school, this is Latin," he says. I frown at him disbelieving him, but enjoying the brief laughter he gives in this moment. Only Sam...

"Wait, why would Lorien and the Roman Empire have the same language?" Seven says.

"Didn't the Loric give humans language?" Sam says.

"Maybe, since they were here around the Roman empire, two thousand years ago roughly, the languages developed similar to each other," Seven says, a look of admiration crosses my face. I try to keep the envy out.

"Can you read it?" I insist asking them, my breath growing short, why can't I understand the damn text!

"Not really," Sam says.

"Some of it," Seven smiles at the look of apprehension on my face.

Her eyes scan over the painting and something in her eyes cloud.

"Marina," I say. "Marina," her fists stiffen. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she says quickly. "It's nothing. Anyway, there's healer on here, water of life," she says shuddering.

"Marina," I repeat, slipping my hand into hers. She withdraws it quickly.

Something about this reminds me of Eight's behavior with the picture of him dead. I scan the words, trying to make sense of it, why can't I. It's just a side effect of getting a new Legacy. Just. A. Side. Effect.

"There's also shadow on here," she adds.

I nod.

"Let's check the others, pictures and words," Sam volunteers awkwardly.

We move over to mine.

"You look really pretty here," she points to the main picture, of, of course, me smirking.

She starts translating, I urge her to not waste time on any of the pictures, I don't want her to see me with blood on my face.

"Storm," she says. "Heart, I think.

I walk over, knowing that my pictures had a lot of my life, maybe I will learn something about Five, what she tries to hide.

Her symbol is several circles and a crescent at the top. Her background is a sunset in the clouds, fluffy clouds illuminated by golden orange light.

There's a picture of her posing, half naked, but thankfully all body parts that should be covered are. Another if her on the grass with her black leopard. One of her fighting, and another of her swinging two swords around, face looking much prettier than it actually is.

There's another one, I know it's her but I don't know how, because it's at nighttime. She's on a swing, and there is a little of a lonely feeling with it, but something else I can't place.

The main picture is one of her standing amid ice, facing away. For some reason, I know it's her but I don't see her face. There is a white light behind her, it must be the sun.

There is something of a lonely feeling that freezes my breath, accompanying this picture. Thousands of times stronger Something that inspires raw desolation inside of me, and I know Seven feels it too. I'll ask Five about it later.

There's a whole life story here, but there is something missing here for me, something that I felt while looking at my own paintings. A whole story of someone I know so little, that I cannot understand.

Something tells me I never will.

"I can't translate this," Marina says, but after a moment adds, "I think that says ice, because glacier is ice, and that says glacies."

We move onto Four's again it's nothing interesting, but I guess it's like that because I'm not Four.

I resolve to not be bored, this is a Loric cave.

We move to Nine's, I forget to hate him.

The picture that captures me most is one in a desert, he is lying on his back, eyes closed, and there is a certain fire there that isn't there physically but kind of permeating mentally. It's not the same kind of haunting that is on Five's wall, that, compared to this, was ice and this fire.

"That's gladiator," Sam points. Gladiatoris. Well no shit Sherlock.

"I think that says military," Marina points to another word.

It doesn't look completely like military.

I can't believe myself, shunning him when I have no idea about anything of his life, what he says cannot be everything, and the pictures which show so little of what Nine told me, represent a tiny bit of his life, a life I do not know.

_I should say sorry. Even if it's not my fault._ When I see him.

I take a last look at the picture with the fire to it, and my heart starts mirroring it, beating faster.

"We should come back here with the rest of the Garde once we rescue them," I say.

"Yeah, definitely," Marina agrees.

We move to Eight's, I'm relieved to not see much dying, more of close up shots of him thinking, laughing, calm expression, in many places I don't recognize, and the last one that draws me in, like what happened with Five, Nine, and me, is him standing on a mountain peak facing away from me. I can't tell what he is looking at.

Loric caves indeed, the only place where emotions come through art. In this one it's determination, sheer will to do _something that I wish I knew._

"I can't translate," Marina says.

Time to change the conversation.

"Your painting. Tell me what it said," I say more firmly, eyes cocking.

She purses her lips and I know she will tell me.

"Promise you won't say anything," she asks.

"Of course," I respond, no hesitation.

"It said healer," she says quickly.

"What?" I laugh, raising my eyebrows.

"You don't get it do you," her face takes on a morose expression and I scramble to understand what in the name of Lorien she is talking about. "It's like my entire identity and importance is that one thing. Even Five thinks that. And that is all I have to offer."

"And you are thinking this to a war?" I respond entirely confused. "Come on Marina, there is a war going on, it doesn't matter if that is the one thing you can do, and really it isn't, what matters is that you aren't taking confidence in that and everything else.

"Hey thanks," she says and that fills my heart with something warm.

I nod, not able to open my mouth.

"Hey, I totally agree with Six," Sam adds. We smile at him gratefully.

"Do you remember everything?" Seven asks.

"Yeah," Sam says.

"Let's go look for other information in other parts then rescue the others."

We leave the Loric cave, I take one last look trying to memorize every single detail of everything, regretting I had not done so before.

Well it wasn't magical. But not everything has to be like it is perfectly scripted.

There's still a tiny part of me wondering if Marina lied about what it said.

* * *

**If anyone has seen North and South PM me ASAP! I need someone to fangirl with over that! And seriously, do it, I need someone to fangirl with.**

**And next chapter hopefully will be up by Tuesday, that is when my last midterm is and then I have the afternoon off, and then I have the rest of the week off.**

**I have ideas for the next chapters, and don't worry I'm not quitting this ever, because I like writing Five way too much to quit.**

**Also if you know Latin, for some of the words I did a tense thing. Gladiatoris is genetive meaning "of the gladiator." For the record, like all of it, is foreshadowing.**


	17. Note

God this was a lot harder to write than I thought it would be.

1- No I am not quitting on this. I still got way to many ideas for the last parts of it and I don't want to leave this unfinished.

2- I'm going to go back and edit this entire story, basically fixing errors that I missed when I proofread (in the rare cases that I actually did), adding certain plot elements, changing some character elements, fixing up the beginning (like putting in a preface in Five's POV, and maybe something about how the other Garde get out of Dulce)

3- Yeah I have no excuse but Sherlock (but its not a flimsy excuse)

4- Once I finish editing I'll write and post following chapters.

5- The next book is called Fall of Five. Which I will have in a metaphorical sense.

6- Thanks for the support for the prior chapters, you are all amazing! I promise I am going to finish this even if this continues long after all canon compliance is erased by the next books!


End file.
